Road to Sudan

Medal Presentation

2010-04-20T03:56:00.000-07:00

While on tour I have earned two medals. The first is the United Nations Mission In Sudan medal for serving over 90 days on a UN Peacekeeping mission.

The second medal, which will awarded in Canada, is the Canadian Peacekeeping Medal.

The following are pictures from my medal presentation at Canada House

Oh.... this one shows what I was really wearing.... it's the new Air Force Desert dress!! LOL

Reflections of Sudan.....Final Words.....

2010-04-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

Reflections of Sudan

I figure that this will be my final blog entry of my Canadian Forces tour with the United Nations Mission In Sudan. I was notified of this position in April 2009. It has now been 12 months since I realized that I was going to be deployed to Sudan.

Since I arrived in Sudan I have worked with and alongside many great people. I have made numerous friends and developed many professional relationships. I have worked directly with military members from 12 different countries including: Philippines, Indonesia, Germany, Russia, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Romania, China, Yemen, Tanzania, Bolivia, Rwanda, Sudan and of course Canada.

I have also worked with UN POLICE from countries such as: Ghana, Fiji, Nepal, Philippines, Korea, Indonesia, Australia and many others.

During my tour I also landed in or visited 13 countries including: Holland – Amsterdam, Budapest – Hungary, Cairo – Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican, Tanzania, Kenya and Dubai.

During my travels including the UN flights within the Sudan I have traveled well over 50,000 kms. Just as a reference the distance around the world at the Equator is 40,000 kms. So I can say I have flown around the world.

Some other interesting facts about this tour are: I lost 10lbs, I have learned to say “Thank You” in 7 different languages, I adopted a pet chicken and a dog, delivered over 20 soccer balls to underprivileged schools and villages, delivered school supplies from family and friends to over 15 schools, made three delivery of toys for the local hospitals children’s ward, visited over 40+ villages showing the people that someone does care about their security and their situation, taught first aid to the Sudanese Police unit on their Crowd Control course, Climbed the Kurmuk mountain and left a Canadian Inukshuk behind, enjoyed traveling to Italy with my mother, learned to appreciate my family and friends more and realized how important they are in my life, and I learned to work in a multicultural, multiethnic and multi-religious organization like the UN.

I have seen more of the world in six months then I ever would have even in 6 years. I have had a great experience and have learned a great deal during my time away. I am, however, ready to come home. I am looking forward to seeing my friends and family. I will be quickly returning to work at Toronto EMS where I will be embarking on a new position for the next two months.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me on this mission. Especially those who were kind enough to send me care packages in the mail. They helped me to survive and made me very popular amongst my team mates. I was called the Canadian PX (Store). Even the daily dose of emails, face book messages and cards were a great morale booster and helped me get through to tougher days. And of course thank you for reading my blog. I hope that it was interesting and somewhat informative.

Shukran

Thank you

Signing off……. Captain Mike Wionzek….. UNMO #02906 – UNMIS

Flying home

2010-04-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

I am now in Khartoum and living at Canada house. The out clearance here only took about three hours for about 90% of the procedures. The remaining 10% have taken five days as many of the decision makers and people who can authorize payments are either off sick or on holidays. The UN does not assign back up people for authorization while others are off. I have been told that they are deducting one of my holiday days and that the three days of pay that I was authorized by 5 different people is not going to be paid and that it should not have been authorized. I decided to fight this however after the 4th day I have given up.

My flights had to be changed to accommodate the cloud of ash from the Iceland volcano. I was supposed to be leaving Sudan for Amsterdam, visiting The Hague for a couple hours and then heading to Toronto. Now I will be flying Emirates Airlines where I will have a 9 hour layover in Dubai from midnight till 9 am. Then I will fly to Toronto direct.

MEROE Pyramids - Sudan

2010-04-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

My camel

The group.....

Some of them have been restored to show how they would have looked...

All tops were smashed off by an Itialian explorer in search for gold... he found some gold in one pyramid, all of the others were empty

All the tops...gone..

On the way out......

2010-04-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

My Last time passing through the gates of TS KURMUK...... :(

My "dealer" Afrim - our Beer and Birr dealer.... Great guy....

Mike Stacey - this one is for you. The first School to receive your Sqn's gifts.

Yeh, I thought I was strong..... 80 year old women with no muscle tone carry these loads for miles.... three of us (me being the smallest) had great difficulty lifting it.

I have said farewell to my friends at Team Site Kurmuk. I am now at the sector HQ in Damazin. I was told that I will need 2 full days at the sector. This means that when I flew to the sector on Wednesday it was not a full day, so I would have to stay Thursday and then I would still need another full day.... Friday and Saturday are days off for Sector and then Sunday would be my next full day which means I could not fly out to Khartoum until Monday.

Well I didn't do anything on Wednesday when I arrived. I figured I would start fresh on Thursday morning and test the theory that I require 2 full days to check out of the sector. I actually used my stop watch and hit start as I walked in the main gate. I completed my entire check out process in ......... 59 minutes!!!

Welcome to the UN.... I still laugh! I am here for 5 days for something that I had told them would only take half a day at most. It took me less then 1 hour to complete a "two day" check out. LOL

The good news is that I had lots of time to study and work out. The bad news is that it was 51 degrees today at noon!! Man it was hot. I stayed in my cabin and completed another module of an online course that i am taking.... so I was happy!

I have also received a basic confirmation of my fight home. It looks as though I will be stopping in Amsterdam for 7 hours again. Last time I went to central Amsterdam. This time I will be visiting the Hague home of the International Criminal Courts. I have been told it is quite beautiful.

Oh by the way.... It has been a very long time since I have mentioned anything about my pet chicken "Sheeza". Well it turns out she did get along with the Cock across the street and she has now produced 4 chicks. They are all doing well.

The boys proudly standing by their STEAM WHISTLE Beer opener!! It will be permanently mounted on the bar next week when the bamboo comes in. Thanks Lorelei!!! More pics to follow from Canada House next week...

I was meeting the Sector Commander on the day I was leaving. The Pak Army is all about the formal "Show". This is one of the guards.

Look up, way up... (do you remember that show?) and on top of the rock you will see a little bump. That's all we can see from the camp of our Inukshuk. Its much more impressive from the top!

Another view of the same rock..... way up....

When I run I start at 6pm as it is the coolest part of the day and it's just before night. Here is the view as I come around the back side of the camp..... Every time I started my run I would smile and think.... I am running during a sunset in AFRICA!!! It still hasn't set in yet...LOL

Good-Bye KURMUK........ I will miss it..... I will miss the team members and my friends....

Best wishes to all of you.....

Kurmuk Town Part Two

2010-04-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Kids taking care of kids.....

Mike Stacey - School number two!! Thanks again!!

How do these bubbles work anyways?

This will be a new trend for Canadian women... I can see it catching on... no more bags!! LOL

Baobab trees in our town

Just a pic of a section of the town....

On of the main streets in Kurmuk

The Mosque in the centre of the village

Village market from the other direction

Donkey Water!!!

Kurmuk the Town....Part 1

2010-04-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

Just a warning....we are not allowed to take pictures in our town... we could be arrested. But I figured it was my last day and I could escape on the helicopter! So here is my village/town of KURMUK Sudan.

These are school children heading home.... They all wear white for certain schools...

Ok... so I had to get rid of some extra candy (L. Holowatyj!!) Thanks! :)

The main Market

one of the shops... on the left is kitchen and house items and on the right seeds and grains

This is where we buy bread.... they all knew Kai quite well as he bought about 15 bread a day!! Those Germans love their bread! (ahem....Uncle Bill!)

This is the area we try to buy veggies.....Onions are the main veg as it grows in any climate... we also can sometimes get - potato's, cucumber, tomato's.

The local water station. You line your bucket up for one of the local youth to fill......

The view as we pull into the Main Market area.... On the left you can see several men at a open window..this is our pop and mango juice supplier... You may be able to see a blue 10gal barrel on the corner of his shop.... that is a communal drinking water barrel... just use the cup provided and grab a drink... no charge...LOL On the right is the water station (see above)...

This is a picture from inside the hospital grounds... I was just dropping of more toys (Thanks Tammy) for the sick children. The building on the right is the main admin building and the place where the Dr or RN will first see the patients. Normally they will arrive by some means (donkey, bike, walk) and will sit under the tree on the left until the Dr can see them.

This is a tukul classroom used by one of the school in town. they also have brick classes but they have too many kids right now. I was there dropping off more school supplies (Thanks Mom, Mike S, Linda)

Good bye KURMUK

2010-04-04T05:42:00.000-07:00

This is a Nomad boy on his cow...

RANDOM!!! This was in our market... You know, you go to the store and you want to buy one of those "PET THINGS".... LOL!!!!

Well I am at a point that for me has come very quickly. I am on my final days at Team site Kurmuk.

I was appointed Acting Team Site Leader (TSL) last week as our Team Site Leader (TSL) was away at a military conference in Damazin. The conference opened his eyes to the games the two military leaders and representatives played during these committee meetings. I was also finally able to play my game as well. Now that I was the TSL I was finally able to question the higher command on any issue that I felt was in conflict to our orders. I have a funny feeling that the higher command was shocked at what it was like to operate with a Canadian at the helm. I entered into an email war with the person who gives us orders. He sends us to places without justification which in the long run can cause safety and security issues for us as UNMO’s. Let’s just say I had fun and they are happy that I am not TSL anymore.

During my time as TSL we also had the President of Sudan – BASHIR come to our town by helicopter for a campaign stop. You may recall the ICC has a warrant out for his arrest for war crimes and genocide. Our higher command sent a one line email saying that we should avoid the rally area. There was no thought about what could go wrong and what actions we (UNMO’s) may have to take. Thank goodness that there is now 3 Canadians and a German on the ground as we entered into a tactical role and game played some of the greatest threats. All went well.

So now that I am leaving I finally have two more Canadians on the ground living at the team site. Chris and Drew arrived on the ground about a week ago. They are getting used to the heat and the mode of operation here. They will both be here until Aug. The worst part for them is that they will be here during the rainy season in which almost no patrols get done due to the roads being washed out.

I visited the village of DOYA last week. I handed out a bunch of pencils and school supplies. I also taught the local kids how to play Frisbee. We had about 15 people all playing Frisbee.
On one of my patrols I happened to meet a three star General form the southern army. Not too often we see that rank driving around our villages.

The bar now has a new set of lights, it’s painted and the disco ball will go up tonight. We have hired a contractor to build the bamboo part of the bar and it will be finished by the week’s end. Unfortunately I will not see the completed bar other then in pictures.

Don Don is doing well. I received a couple of gifts for him with my last gold bags. He loved the Canada soccer ball and the chew rope. He is a little bit of a suck though. He whimpered and wouldn’t go near the rubber squeaky chicken. He also thumbed his nose up at the dog treats that he was offered. Weird dog!! Drew has a friend that is a Vet in Canada and will be sending some medications and dog items for him. I think he will be the most spoiled dog in Sudan!

On Good Friday Drew, Chris, Kai and I decided to climb Kurmuk Mountain. It took us around 1 hour to get to the top. It was a beautiful view. While climbing I even had time to use the binoculars to spy on the southern army’s tank camp. Once at the top we sat on a rock that overlooked the UN Camp. Then we came up with a Canadian idea. Why not leave something here for others to fine. So you may of guessed it we built an INUKSHUK. Unfortunately we built it from memory and although it was good it was did not quite look like it was supposed to. BUT anyone seeing it would not know what the real ones looked like anyways. I have finally left my mark in Kurmuk and it’s at the highest point!

Notice the Canadian flag and the team site in the background.

Yesterday I turned over my job to Drew from Canada. He will take over all of the CIMIC work that I was doing. Today I feel lost as I am no longer needed. I have time to myself. The plan is that I will leave the Team Site on 7 Apr and go to the sector HQ. Due to flight plans, inefficiency and tea I will have to stay at the sector level for 6 days. I am NOT looking forward to that as I have nothing to do there. However I have started another online military course and I hope to finish it while I am stuck there. On Monday 12th I will fly back to Khartoum and be residing at Canada House. Once again I will be bored as I complete my check out procedure at the UN in two days and then sit around waiting for the flight home. If all things work out I will be leaving Sudan around the 22/23 Apr and making my way through Amsterdam and back to Toronto.

Pics

2010-04-04T05:20:00.000-07:00

When a helicopter lands in a remote village everyone comes out to see!

Handing out pencils, bubbles and Frisbees in a village

Jose Avalos (team site leader) during my going away party

The G-1 office - Romanian, Chinese, Bolivia

Kai and Bao (German and Chinese)

My first pic of these guys, they are the fastest critters in the camp and its very hard to get their pic...

ME! In my UN Car

My final parade.... Farewell....

Going away party (Ghana, China, Yeman)

The dinner

Don Don and his new Toy!

Kurmuk

Ok read this!! LOL

General Pics

2010-04-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

On top of Kurmuk Mountain

More Nomads moving for water

This is my town, picture shows the market where I go shopping each day for bread ect..

An old reminder of the war

This IS a river!! This is why they call it dry season

My party

Gifts given on behalf of the Air Cadets

Chillin

The boys

Last boat from Cairo

2010-03-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

Our last night in Cairo was interesting. We headed off to our new favorite restaurant with the large white tent. Kai had mentioned that maybe we should take a light jacket. We didn’t. When we arrived at the restaurant it was interesting to see how many people were wearing full winter parkas, gloves, scarf’s and turtleneck sweaters. I was amazed. It was around 14 degrees outside. That night the temperature dropped to 12 degrees. This was winter in Cairo.

In the restaurant we finally decided to participate in the local pastime of smoking Shisha. It was an interesting experience. It involves smoking a molasses tobacco, which has been flavored, through a glass structure which is filled with water. The tobacco is not tasted, only the flavor is noticed.

I, as always, try to watch and learn from the locals. I like to see what customs and traditions they have between each other. I found that it is very interesting that in Cairo men, like in Sudan, walk arm in arm (not hand in hand like Sudan) and that when two men meet, if they know each other, they kiss each other on both cheeks. When I man meets a woman it is customary only to shake the hand. So men kiss men and women kiss women. Men walk arm in arm with men and women with women. The interesting think that shocked me was that Cairo actually has a special police unit whose job it is to find gay Egypt men and arrest them and make their life very difficult. Very interesting for a culture where men walk arm in arm and kiss only other men and not women!

Our host met us the next morning to take us to the airport. He said we are lucky to be flying as the weather reports are calling for a sand storm to hit Cairo in the next 2-3 days. They come about once a year and cover the entire city in a thin layer of dust and sand. I had heard of them in Khartoum and they are known as a Haboob. The storm is being tracked as it traces across the Great Sahara Desert.

I talked to our host about the driving in Cairo which is chaotic at best. I asked about the pedestrians that cross the highways. He said it is no problem. In Cairo if a car strikes a pedestrian on the high way they do not get in trouble. It is considered the pedestrians fault. I did notice that throughout all of Cairo the cars have the right of way NOT the people crossing the street! I have to admit we ran many times to get out of traffic as it sped towards us.

When the plane landed in Khartoum and the captain made an announcement there was cheers and clapping from the passengers. I didn’t know what was said because it was in Arabic. Then it came over in English “Welcome to Khartoum where the local time is 630pm and the Temperature is 41 degrees! Now I know why the people were clapping. When I got off the plane the heat hit me like a wave. My eyes felt like they were melting.

The next morning as I headed to the UN Airport I noticed the sky was grey. As the sun came up I discovered that it was not grey but brown. The sand storm had arrived in Khartoum. Several flights were cancelled but mine got off the ground. As we flew to Damazin I noticed that the sand storm was quite high and was covering most of Sudan. Often you could not see out the plane windows. In Damazin and in Kurmuk the sky was clear and the sun was hot. Kurmuk had been having a little more of a heat wave. Last week they were getting up to 52 degrees.

On Friday morning I woke up to fine the sky very brown and the sun was not visible. The sand storm was here. Everything is being coated in a thin layer of dust much like talcum powder.

I have found out that another Canadian will be coming to Kurmuk to replace me in about a week. I have also counted that I have only 19 days left in Kurmuk before I begin my out clearance procedures.

I am looking forward to home.

Cairo - Final Day

2010-03-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Final Day in Cairo

We decided to take the day off and enjoy our final day in Cairo. I slept in, downloaded some pictures and then went for a walk around town. We had one goal today. For the past 3 days Kai has stated that he wants to try KFC! That’s right the German wants to try Kentucky Fried Chicken! They do not have KFC in Germany and that have hundreds here in Cairo. So we had KFC for lunch and it did taste exactly as it does in Canada. After the meal Kai understood why I said I can only eat it once in a year. We walked around for the next hour trying to burn off the fat and grease we just ate.

So I had forgotten to mention something about my last day in Tanzania. I had forgotten to mention that on the road trip back from the Safari to the hotel in Moshi I had seen about 3 dead people. There was a car accident that we came upon just as the police loaded the bodies in the back of a pickup. That right there was no ambulance in site. I figure that 2-3 people died in that accident. The car looked like a small aircraft crash as it was in the middle of a field and completely crunched up. It reminded us of how vulnerable we were in Africa as there are no seat belts, no real traffic laws, no ambulances and no trauma hospitals. About 30min later we were driving through another town and on the side of the road there was a crowd and sure enough another body with a police officer looking over the crowd. The man was probably about 50-60years old and was laying there dead in the road. I only bring this up because as we were walking today there was a commotion near one of the bridges which involved the police, ambulance and some people. They were searching the water, the Nile, for a body. We stopped for a while to watch the police divers arrive. We decided to move on.

Life is precious….enjoy it!

Tomorrow I am heading back to Sudan for a night in Khartoum. The following day I will be flying back to my team site. I only have a short time remaining in this mission. I hope that I can accomplish a few more things before I depart my team site on the 6th of April.

I won’t be writing for about a week unless something tremendous happens….like someone actually covering my position in Kurmuk and keeping all of the files, I manage, up to date….LOL as if! This is the UN!

Cheers!

Mike…..PS as of today it is approximately 1 month until I fly home!!

See You Soon.

Cairo Pictures (Click Here).... Words to follow

2010-03-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

My Pics of Cairo can be seen by clicking the title above of by going to this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113337861842515615988/CairoEgypt2010?feat=directlink

Cheers

Old Cairo - Day 4

2010-03-15T11:10:00.001-07:00

Old Cairo – Day 4

Memphis, no not in the USA, Cairo is also known as the old Cairo. We went to the site of King Rameses II statues. He was one of the most influential kings of Egypt. Memphis was the old capital of Egypt. There have been many capitals over the many years of Egypt’s existence.

We also went into the area called Sakara which is very well known for its Egyptian Carpet Schools. These schools train children from the age of 6 and up to manufacture Egyptian and oriental carpets. These kids live in Sakara which is a very poor area. School is not mandatory in Egypt and families must pay for school uniforms, books and any other fees that the school has. So in this district the families find it easier to send their children to be carpet makers. Some of the children will get some schooling however most are just carpet makers for the rest of their lives. This also helps the children to help support their families when they get older. The pay of course is not great. To me this seems a little like child labour however if they weren’t in these schools they would be receiving no education and never have a possibility for a future job. A hard reality to think about. It’s a shame the country could not improve education in the poorer areas.

We arrived at the next set of pyramids called the Step Pyramids. It was the first of a new style of pyramid that included 5 steps in the slope of the pyramid. There was also a pottery pyramid which was called this because the pyramid was covered and built with broken pottery. This area, in total size, is massive and they think that they have only uncovered the beginning of what will turn out to be a massive ruins area. The excavation is all done by hand and takes a great deal of time. This project much like the one in Italy at Pompeii will be continuing for years.
Tonight we went on a Nile Dinner Cruise. The food was ok. It was a small buffet. There was a belly dancer, live band and an Egyptian twirler. The belly dancer needs to go back for more training…Oh did I say that? LOL. The twirler – a male dancer wearing a colourful Egyptian dress who spins around non-stop for about 15 minutes was awesome. He impressed me and the others on the boat. 98% of which arrived from 4 buses of a Japanese tour.

We cruised around the Nile for 2 hours. It was a nice way to spend the evening in Cairo.

The GREAT Pyramids -Day 3

2010-03-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Day 3 – The GREAT PYRAMIDS

Wow, what a site. Three pyramids all in great shape considering how old they are. The Nile was once a mightier river then it is now and was wide enough to actually flow very near to the pyramids. Now it is quite a distance away. I learned a great deal about the 3 main pyramids and the other 3 minor ones. I was warned that absolutely NOTHING is free in this area. I also read that you need to guard your camera. Well sure enough as soon as we left our guide and were taking a few pics a police officer approached me and in broken English asked for my camera and then made me pose. This is where I got the funny shots of the pyramids. After he made Kai and I pose the camera became ransom for a tip. So he made some money off of us that day. We had many other people offer to take our picture or offer to pose with us….It was all about offering you something for free and then holding you hostage for the tip. It was also awesome to see the boats that they burry next to the pyramid for easier passage to the afterlife. The boat beside the Great Pyramid was massive!

We also traveled to the Salah El Din Citadel which stands high above Cairo. In the citadel there are 3 mosques including the most important to the Egyptians called the Mohamed Ali Bashir Mosque. We were able to visit and tour the inside of the Mosque. There were 365 lights that used to be candles. This represented the days of the year. There was a beautiful courtyard and the views from the outer wall of the mosque overlooked the city of Cairo.

When we left the Mosque we visited a Papyrus Paper factory and learned how the ancient Egyptians used the Papyrus plant for paper and as a method of recording historical events. I ended up buying a couple of prints.

We spent a couple hours at the Egyptian Museum which is host to hundreds of Mummies and their sarcophaguses. It was also host to thousands of other treasures found all over Egypt. Of course this includes the most famous of them all; the items of King Tutankhamen. King Tut was the king of Egypt from the age of 9 to 18 at which time he died without explanation. He wasn’t a famous king nor any better than any other kings. The only reason he is so famous is due to the fact they found so much in his tomb. We were able to get up close to many of the items found in his tomb. We were 3 inches away from his famous golden head piece. I was great to learn about the various symbolisms used in ancient Egypt and Rome. It was easy to start analyzing different statues and their status in Egypt based on the symbols that were used.

Enjoy the pictures……

Alexandria - Day 3

2010-03-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

Alexandria – Day 3

Today we went to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. It has been a famous city throughout history. It was concurred by the Greeks, Romans and Spaniards. It is also where the Nile ends and spills into the Mediterranean ocean. The city has many beaches, oil refineries and large corporations.

I finally figured out that I have been to 4 sides of the Mediterranean Ocean. I have been on the beaches of Spain – west, France – north, Italy – east, and Egypt – south. Our tour included the palace of King Al-Montaza which sits on one side of the coast of Alexandria and the Citadel which sits on the other side of the coast of Alexandria. The palace has been closed for years and is still not open to the public.

We also toured the ruins of a catacomb which was found by accident. The catacombs went down 100 stairs. We were able to see where all of the bodies were buried. It was an interesting tour located in a poorer area of the city of Alexandria. The catacombs showed the overlap, through symbols, of the Greek/Roman and Egyptian eras. From there we went to visit another historical site called Pompey’s Pillar. It was the location of a single free standing pillar that is in excellent shape. The pillar is guarded by a very well preserved Sphinx.

We had lunch by the sea which included fresh fish of course. It was a good meal. After lunch we began the 3 hour trip back to Cairo.

That night we missed our boat cruise. We decided to find another restaurant and maybe to a bar crawl. We found a good Italian restaurant, enjoyed some food and found a couple pubs before we headed home.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the Great Pyramids.

Cairo - day 2 - cooler out

2010-03-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Forgot to mention how hot is was yesterday! I even had to switch rooms as my AC was broken and I couldn't stop sweating.

Cairo seems very spread out like Toronto. In the areas nearby there is not much to see. When you look at the overall map there are single tourist sites available however they are some distance apart and none are close to me. The city is quoted as being very safe. There is a definite presence of armed police and military and security guards at every second corner. Now I am in the embassy area and there are many armed guards surrounding every embassy.

The driving here is amazing. I was told by many people that the drivers in Cairo are some of the worst and best. The lines on the road mean nothing. Headlights are used at night for flashing other drivers not for having on while driving. During the day everyone honks all of the time. It seems to be a reverse onus that when you are driving it is not the other driver’s responsibility to notice you is it is your responsibility to notify ALL other drivers that you are one the road and driving. Therefore you constantly honk to let everyone know you are in the area. Seat belts are only required for the driver and definitely not required for children. The more people you can fit in a vehicle the more stable the vehicle becomes..LOL. Motorcyclists MUST have a helmet; however they do not have to wear it. These are just a few examples of things that I have noticed…. More to follow…

Cairo is a city of 22million people. To give that perspective Toronto has 3.5 million and Canada has 33 million people. So you could say that Cairo has almost the entire population of Canada within it city borders. Egypt itself has been under the control of many different cultures. Egypt was controlled by the French, Roman, Greek and Turkish. In 1956 it was finally its own republic.

My UNMO mate Kai arrived at 930pm today. Once he got settled in we headed back to the same tented restaurant that I was at last night. He agrees that is was great atmosphere with good food.

Tomorrow we begin our tour of Egypt.

Day 1 - Cairo

2010-03-11T23:01:00.000-08:00

I arrived at the Cairo airport at 200am after landing in 4 other countries. The tour company met me at the airport and was an excellent host. He even gave me a SIM card for my phone so that I could call him at any time if I needed something. At the hotel I was a little shocked at how the room appeared. But I was too tired to care and I finally went to sleep.

I woke that morning at 1030am. I decided to go for a walk around the area to get my bearings and to see what was available. My first impression of Cairo was that it was a dirty, but very upscale Khartoum. It is where Khartoum could be in about 20 years…..maybe. The first thing I noticed was that drivers honking at everyone and everything! Always!

My Hotel is in the Zamalek region of Cairo which is essentially an Island. It is surrounded completely by the Nile River. The Island is considered one of the upscale rich areas of Cairo. The Island is also host to over 20 embassies. The most interesting embassy set up of who is whose neighbor was the threesome of the Swiss embassy then their neighbors the Iraq embassy and their neighbors the Vatican embassy.

I stopped at the Marriot hotel for a bit to eat for lunch. It was beautiful inside, that is once I got past the armed guards, the bomb sniffing dog and the metal detector. They have 9 restaurants and bars. I should have realized that the price was going to be quite high. I think my bill was $25USD for a small chicken wrap and a bottle of beer. When I got back to my room I was shocked at the heat. It was a very hot day in Cairo and the AC in the room was not working at all. I asked for a new room and I got one immediately. The staff here are very accommodating.

I was alone for dinner that night so I ventured out and went to a restaurant that was recommended by the front desk. It was about a 20 min walk. When I arrive it was extremely busy and you required reservations. I sweet talked the hostess and sure enough she got me a table. The place is a very large white tent on the bank of the split in the Nile. It was filled with a very classy crowd. All the tables, chairs and cooks were in white. The food was great, the price was good and the music was perfect. Almost every table had someone smoking sheesha. I had a great dinner.

Enjoyed the people watching and headed home to bed.

Cairo - Egypt

2010-03-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

I arrived at the airport at 0230am! I was tired and wanted a bed after flying through 5 countries. The hotel is located in the "wealthy" part of Cairo. I do not see too much as it is early in the morning. The hotel will have to do for now but it is pretty run down.

I have the 11th and 12th off to relax. My friend Kai from Germany arrived on the 12th night from Germany. We will tour for the 13, 14 and 15th. On the 17th we will fly back to Khartoum and on the 18th we will both fly back to the team site in Kurmuk....our home!

More to follow.... I'm off to bed...

Mike

My SAFARI Pics - Click here!

2010-03-10T03:25:00.000-08:00

Click the title to see all of the safari pics. This only shows a few as Margo, Guido and myself combined all of our pics which ended up being over 500 pics!!!

Enjoy!

Mike

LAKE MANYARA National Park - Day 3

2010-03-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

Me with the Termites!

Lake Manyara National park

“The cleavage, known as the Great Rift Valley, can be identified from space as the most distinctive feature of the African continent. The seam of this cleavage has developed a series of fascinating and beautiful lakes. One of these lakes is called Manyara. Lake Manyara is also a national park. Manyara is a fantastic big game park. The variety of habitats parallels its exceptional scenery.

Every imaginable East African animal is found here in abundance. There are great herds of buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and several varieties of gazelle. Mahogany, sausage tree and croton are alive with blue monkeys and vervet monkeys. Some of the most amazingly large pods of hippos congregate at the rivers emerging into the lake, and the birdlife is plentiful. Lake Manyara used to be known for its "tree-climbing" lions however they have all disappeared due to humans.”

By the morning of this third day we were all pretty Safari’d out.

First sighting was the family of Giraffes. This included several baby giraffes. We ended up in between the entire family and this stressed them out. One mother and baby got separated. It was interesting watching them figure out how to get back together with the herd without getting to close to us. I have this on video. It was amazing to see these animals up close and being able to get an appreciation for their height.

We ventured to a Hippo pool/pond. Man these guys are LAZY!! They sit in the water all day and only really move at night to graze. So I have a couple of pics when one adjusted his position as this was the only good view of them. All the other views are only of their back poking out of the water.

We ended up in the middle of a flock/herd/troop/family of baboons. It was fun watching the interaction of the various members and especially the babies as they played tag with one another. Again I have some good video.

I was getting safari’d out as were the other two. So we started taking fun pictures of the animals. I have a few close ups of the Vervet monkeys… Can you guess what part?

We spotted an interesting animal just by chance. It resembles a miniature dear. It is called a Dik Dik by locals. It was the smallest cutest animal, again check my pics.

As we rounded a corner we came across a herd of elephant. This one included about 10-14 elephants and their babies.

As we left the park we were slowed by a family of Baboons on the road. I was able to get some good close up pics of them grooming.

Just "hanging out" LOL

Our guide lied to us and said that he was taking us to a real Maasai village and not a commercial village. As we drove up to this non-commercial village we noticed a sign on the road on the way in that said “MAASAI VILLAGE Dot Com”. Then we were met by a Maasai on a bike with a Manchester United hat on. He told the driver to take his time as he sped away on his bike. Once at the village we noticed another group of tourists being shuffled out of the site. As they left we were welcomed in, after we paid our $10.00 USD each LOL! The only goal from the village was to sell their stuff. All the ladies had tables laid out and all of the tables had the same things on them. I felt obligated to see every table. I bought 2 necklaces just to make them a little happy. They sang the welcome song and performed the male jumping ritual for us and had us get involved. From there we were invited to sit inside a BOMA (like a Tukul) and were told about the Maasai from the Chiefs son. They have a very interesting history and many of their customs (bad and good) are still practiced today.

I did learn a fair bit about their tribal customs and history. Check out Maasai on Wikipedia to learn more about them. The best part is that we could take their pictures without any problems.

The rest of the day was spent driving the 3.5 hours back to Moshi to my other hotel. From there I was invited out for Guido’s B-Day party. He had invited other people that he met during his two weeks in Moshi. There were about 20 of us that arrived at this little restaurant called “El Rancho”. The food was Indian, not Mexican as I would have thought! The food was awesome and the beer was cold. Most of the 20 were volunteers working in Tanzania and Kenya. Some were medical and others were students. I ended up spending most of my time speaking with a Medical student who has taken a year off 3rd year university to volunteer in a labour and delivery ward of a local hospital. She is from Germany. I also met Nick who is a homeopathic practitioner from Montreal. We left the restaurant at 2:30am…the staff left the restaurant at 1:30am! They just left us as it is an outside restaurant. There was only one problem. In Moshi when you want a Taxi you don’t call a company, you call a guy you know. We called 6 taxi’s from the restaurant with no luck.

We headed to Nick’s place to get the numbers of 4 more cab guys. They all failed. I ended up staying at Guido’s guest house. The crappy part was that I had a great new room at my hotel!!

The next day I relaxed and then headed to the airport. I did not realize that I was on a “milk run” from Tanzania to Cairo. I flew the following route: Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) – Nairobi (Kenya) – Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) – Khartoum (Sudan) – Cairo (Egypt). That’s five countries!!

Oh well…. Cairo here I come!

NGORONGORO CRATER - Day 2

2010-03-09T03:27:00.000-08:00

DAY 2 – NGORONGORO CRATER Conservation Area

“Ngorongoro is quite unique as its physical protection from man natural beauty ranks it among the most pristine wildernesses on earth. It is regarded as a natural wonder of the world and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is the largest intact crater in the world, being 610 meters deep, 16 kilometers across and covering an area of 540 square kilometers. On the crater floor, grassland blends into swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and mountains - all a haven for wildlife, including the greatest predator population in Africa. The volcanic crater is packed with wildlife, including all the big game. Its pride and joy, however, is that it remains the last great wild refuge for the endangered black rhino.”

The drive today was awesome as we departed from our hotel which was located in the “RIFT VALLEY”. The drive was a up winding road that climbed just shy of 2,000 meters! It was breathtaking! Once at the top of the Rift Valley we were able to look back over the massive landscape. Pictures never do this view justice. After about an hour of driving we arrived in the Ngorongoro (pronounced Gore-on-gore-oh) conservation area. When we arrived at the lookout point on the rim of the crater we were amazed. What an absolutely incredible sight! We looked into the crater and were a little shocked that we couldn’t see any animals at all. The crater looked empty! As we learned later on this is the amazing optical illusion of the crater. It is so big and yet looks so small to the human eye. I grabbed the binoculars to see if anything was visible and I was able to see a few small herds. But still, nothing spectacular. Again an optical illusion!

After taking some pics we headed down the steep road that lead to the crater floor. Once on the floor we found ourselves right in the middle of a very very large herd of wildebeest. There was probably 200-300 of them cutting across our path! Welcome to Africa. The rest of the day was amazing! There was so much wild life. The view from the crater floor was still creating an optical illusion. This place was so massive and yet so small at the same time. We went hunting for the African BIG FIVE: Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Rhino and Elephant.

We were able to find everything except the Leopard which is the most elusive animal to find.
The elephants here were different than the ones we had seen at other game parks. The tusks were very long and almost dragged on the ground. This shows how old they are and how they are closer relatives to the Wooly Mammoth. Even their skin was different.

I can’t say enough about this park. I think the pics speak for themselves. We found a pack of lions. There were 3 female, one male and one teenaged male. They were in short grass (2-3 feet high) near a natural stream. The incredible thing is that when they lay down you couldn’t see them at all. If you happened to be walking through that area the grass didn’t look high at all and you would have walked into 5 hungry lions.

Can you see 5 lions?

We stopped for lunch by a pond. In the distance we could see some humps in the water. This was a herd of Hippos resting. They only come out at night to eat.

We finally found the Black Rhino, an almost extinct animal. There were three however they were quite far away from us. We could not get close to the lake which had about 1,000 pink flamingos on it. What a shame as we missed a good picture opportunity.

The whole day was an awesome experience! What a great location and a great safari!

TANANGIRE National Park Safari - Day 1

2010-03-07T02:28:00.000-08:00

Elephant Skull

This guy got my lunch!

Vervet Monkey

Angry Elephants!

The First Safari – Tarangire National Park - http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.html

Upon arrival at the park we had to wait while our guide registered us and took care of the payments. We found a group of about 5 small monkeys. They are called the VERVET monkey. They have light brown fur and “Blue Balls” LOL yes they do! (see pictures)

I also took some pictures of a skull found in the park. It is of the Elephant! It’s massive! (see pics)

During lunch we were warned to eat our lunches carefully as the Vervet monkeys were very bold and they would run up and grab to food right out of your hand. Sure enough one was moving in on Margo. As I stood up and went to grab my water bottle the monkey shifted from Margo and ran after me. He was so quick I barely had time to respond before I realized he had taken half of my sandwich right out of my hand!!

The park was full of wild life in their natural habitat. At first we had thought there wasn’t much to see. Just then it got busy! That day we were able to see: Wild Boar, Warthog, wildebeest, gazelle, zebra, giraffe, elephant, Impala, River Buck, ostriches, Jackal, and mongoose.

During one of our photo shoots we were watching a herd of elephants on the other side of a river. They seemed like they wanted to cross so we got into position with 3 other vehicles to watch. We watched the herd as it went into the river and then began to play and roll around in the water. It was awesome seeing elephants rolling in a river and spraying water on each other to cool off. As we watched finally three elephants decided it was time to cross the river he3ading towards us! We watched with excitement as the animals grew nearer to us. Only three came across and they were the largest three. As they got closer to us there was something not right. They seemed agitated and not very docile. We started to get a little worried as our guide said it’s no problem. We didn’t have the fullest confidence in the guide yet. We actually felt that they were about to charge. All of a sudden there was a yell from another elephant from the river. The three quickly turned around and ran back across the river to join the others. They kept stopping to look back as if to say “we are watching you!”. What an experience!

That night Margo and Guido were supposed to be staying at a camp site while I was to be staying at a local lodge. The guide made a few phone calls and managed to have us all stay at the lodge together. He said he did it because he said he could see that we had all become very good friends and he figured we would want to be together for the night. He was right, but because it’s Tanzania I figure he saved himself some money somewhere there. LOL.

We all went to the lodge and sorted out rooms, got changed and went swimming while enjoying Kilimanjaro Beer…. What a GREAT DAY!!

Tanzania, Africa

2010-03-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

After breakfast I packed by bags and headed to the lobby to meet my tour guide. Along with him was a girl from Peru and a guy from The Hague. Margo was 29 and from Markham Ontario. She quit her job as a tour operator in Peru where she lives with her husband. Guido, I know not what I thought was a Dutch name, is from The Hague Holland and is touring Africa and parts of Asia for 6 months as he just finished university. Our driver is Ricky from Tanzania of course.

Within an hour the three of us are getting along like we have known each other for years. Both Margo and Guido had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro within the last week. They both said it was an incredible experience. I am now thinking that I should have taken the opportunity to do the same. However it would have taken an extra 6-7 days that I didn’t have.

We stopped at a supermarket to pick up snack food for the safaris and then off we went. The drive took about 3.5 hours to get to the safari region. Margo and Guido were scheduled to stay at a camp site at one location and I was staying at a lodge at another location. All three of us booked through 3 different travel/tour companies. I guess when each one only has one person they call each other and that way they save money by only using one car and one driver/guide.

It was amazing to drive through all of the villages. They were much like the ones I had seen and described when I went to Uganda. The big difference is that there were Maasai tribesmen everywhere in their traditional dress. They have been wearing the double blanket Maasai dress for years. They also decorate their ears and necks for both men and women. Even the boys who were Sheppard were wearing the traditional dress of the Maasai. Read about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai

In Tanzania the people speak Swahili and English. I was very taken back to hear how well the Maasai spoke English. It turns out that only the men are permitted to learn and speak Swahili and English. The women are only permitted to speak the Maasai language. More on them later.

Tanzania is much like Uganda. They both drive on the left side of the road. The laws or lack thereof are similar as is the driving habits.

The rainy season is short, from March to June with the remainder of the year having normal amounts of rain similar to a summer in Vancouver BC. Everything is a lush green here much like Uganda. I am now located on the S/E side of Lake Victoria whereas when I was in Uganda I was on the N/W side of the lake.

Many travelers come here to climb Mount Kilimanjaro as it is the highest mountain in Africa at 5,895 metres or 19,341 feet (the Uhuru Peak).[3] Mount Kilimanjaro is considered to be the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, rising 4600 m (15,100 feet) from the base. I will have to climb it next time I am in Africa!

After the climb many of the travelers will travel to the tropical island of Zanzibar located of the Tanzanian coast in the Indian Ocean. It is known for its white sand beaches and cheap prices. Again this is something I must do on my next visit.

I am staying at the Bristol Cottages Hotel while in Moshi. This hotel is a nice jewel in the middle of a busy little town. The rooms are nice and the meals are quite good.
Tanzania is surrounded by several countries including Kenya to the north, where they share the Serengeti and the annual migration of the wildebeest. To the south is Mozambique Zambia. West is Congo and Rwanda.

CTO #3 - Heading out for a Safari

2010-03-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

I must admit it was nice to be leaving the team site again. It was a steady week and I am starting once again to feel the pressure of working with the international staff of UNMO’s. The last minute confirmations for the trip caused me a little stress, but as I have mentioned before you MUST have a sense of humour here and learn that everything should fall into place.

We have a system here for the UN for booking our movements throughout the UN. It’s called an MOP and it is like a passport and reservation system all on one piece of paper. I booked all my details on 15 Feb for this trip. They post the flight manifests the day before your flight. I started looking and sure enough I was NOT on either of the two flights that I needed to get me to Khartoum for my vacation. The worst part was that the manifest for the 2nd flight was full and there was a standby list of 6 people. This would put me at the bottom! I started making phone calls and sending emails. One of my friends who works in the movements area told me to call a certain person in the headquarters and let them know what is going on. He did this because he is fed up with all the mistakes a certain area was making on a regular basis. So I called and sent copies of all of my documentation. I guess I got a hold of the right guy as I was manifested as number two person on the flight and at each leg there were people meeting me to ensure my bags were being moved properly and that I was being taken care of. Oh… I forgot to mention I did happen to let the person up at the HQ know that I was scheduled to have a meeting that afternoon with the Force Commander (head of the UN military)….. hehe.. What I meant to say is that I was going to meet MY Force Commander (Canadian in command of me in Sudan).. A little different BUT it got me the attention I needed to ensure my travel plans!

Mine Field Day!!!

Before my 1100 flight I had arranged a meeting for my fellow team mates to meet the head of the local Demining Company. He was going to give my guys a briefing on the demining operation in Kurmuk and also show us how they use dogs and machines to find and destroy the mines. It was incredibly interesting especially watching the dogs find the mines and UXO’s. The dogs are trained to search an area in lines and when they find something they sit down and don’t move until told. From there the area is marked and the deminer has to come in a clear it manually. This system is used in the areas that the machines cannot reach. The dogs work from about 0700am – 1100am At this point they are tired and it’s just too hot. I have taken some photos and video of this. I will post it as soon as I can.

The mine destroyer machine - It eats them up and destroys them! Can't be used in rocky areas. Anti-personal mines will still sometimes go off but with no damage to the machine. Anti-tank mines get destroyed in place with no explosion. This thing digs down 13 inches and destroys everything.

The mine finding dogs. They can find anything with a hint of explosive. Even old used bullets.

This is a sample of a destroyed anti-personal mine.

The rock system is used in every mine clearing operation. just have to remember that RED is BAD!!!

Oh, this is a military check point that I was set to investigate. Can you tell who is who? There are UNMO's, North and south army monitors and then there is the Check Point military personal who I am investigating.

KHARTOUM

In Khartoum I ran around trying to get things ready for the trip. The most important was trying to use the bank machine for the first time and not knowing how much money I could withdraw. I had tried our system of sending a check by helicopter to Damazin where one of our fellow officers picks it up and cashes it at the bank in Damazin and then sends the envelope of money back to you with the next helicopter. There was only one problem, the bank in Damazin had NO money and wasn’t going to get any until the following week.

My trip was going to be booked with a company in Tanzania who were friends of my work mates from the same area. I was offering to pay by credit card but the company was waiting for the credit card machine to arrive and it may take about 2 more weeks (African time). The other option was a wire transfer however that takes about 2 weeks and costs me another $40 USD. This all occurred within one week of me leaving for my trip. My Tanzanian work mates spoke to the agent that they knew and worked out a very risky deal. The agent would book everything including my flights on the word of my friends that I was a good guy and would pay in cash upon arrival. I was amazed; once again everything was working out. I had to pay $2,221.00 upon arrival.

Well I could not get the money I needed from Damazin so I would have to try in Khartoum however the banks are closed on Fridays…. I was going to have to try the Bank machine and hope that it has money and hope that I can take out enough. When I arrived at the machine it was being repaired and restocked. I asked the guy about the maximum withdrawal and he said you can take out 2,000 per day in 500 dollar increments. I was very happy and was able to remove the money on that day and then I came back 24 hours later and withdrew the remainder.

All things worked out well.

FLIGHTS

I arrive at the Khartoum airport at 0400am. The flight that was supposed to leave at 630 didn’t board till then. I did not know the whole flight plan and I was sleeping as we flew. I ended up flying from Sudan to Ethiopia then to Kenya and then to Tanzania. On the final leg of the trip there were about 40 Brits who had shirts that said “HOPE FOR HEROS” which is a fund raising organization that helps raise public funds for wounded war vets from the UK. They were all heading to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. It is always interesting at the Khartoum airport as I was in a light pair of pants and a t-shirt and I was sweating other were wearing winter jackets and toques!!

I was nice to see Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, as it was green and looked well developed (compared to Khartoum). When we flew into Mombasa, Kenya we were flying along the Indian Ocean coast line. It was beautiful. Mombasa was my second choice for a place to visit.
I do believe the pilot was either new or just very bad! Both landings were very rough including bouncing the aircraft and not having great control once it was on the ground. Both mistakes made by new or inexperienced pilots.

When I arrived in Tanzania at the Kilimanjaro airport we had to go through the usual procedures of getting the Visa ($100 USD!!) and completing the health questionnaire. When I turned in my Green Canadian passport the officer was a little confused. He was stumped by the fact that it is a “Special Passport”. I showed him my UN ID and explained that I am with the UN. He stamped my book and said have a great day. There was NO charge!! I am starting to enjoy this UN ID.

I was met at the airport by a guy holding a sign with my name on it. I have always wanted to be “someone” who looks important with someone holding up my name. LOL. Turns out he wasn’t the guy that I was supposed to meet. My guy’s car had broken down. So this was his friend and I was supposed to go with him….Hmmmmm. But as we walked to the car he called the guy that I was supposed to meet and he said that everything is alright and that he would meet me at the Hotel.

The hotel was nice and was located in the city of MOSHI which is the launching point for anyone who is going to climb Kilimanjaro or going on Safari. That night I enjoyed a good meal and watched some TV as I went to bed early. I think, once again, that I was one of the only guests in the hotel.

I am looking forward to the Safari tomorrow. Hopefully I will be with some good people, as I am sharing the vehicle with another tour group.

2010-03-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Our Friday lunch at UNMO house... The typical meal is Rice/potato with some form of meat and some vegitable 99% of the time cabbage.

Can you see the chopper?

Me and my friend Don Don

He is soooo hyper!

Our UNMO dishwasher

Clean is mearly a suggestion.... LOL

Our Pet....

2010-03-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

This is our new UN pet. He was giving to a patrol member after a visit with a local Umda who had seen the dog playing with the patrol member during the entire visit. His name is now Don Don which is the same as the patrol leaders name.

This is the kitchen at the UNMO house...

So how is our job difficult? Can you spot the rebel solider who is controlling a check point? He is the one walking towards the car wearing shorts.

Our pet... he is young and very active!

A final farewell party for two of our team members......

More pics

2010-02-28T00:21:00.000-08:00

Spring MAY be near... some new blossims

Our drive.... My Car

We think these are enemy sentries... they come out of no where and stare us down...

WOW...

2010-02-27T23:50:00.000-08:00

More kids running to see who is driving by...

Now we do see a great deal of women doing most of the hard work in this country. These women are carrying wood to their homes or to the local market to sell. They load the wood in to even piles and then tie it to a long pole. They carry the pole on their shoulders for the entire distance. Today we met two older women (about 60+ years old) and we asked if we could take a picture with us lifting the wood. They agreed. These two women were over 60 years old and had NO muscle tone (lack of food and nutrients over the years). We were severely shocked when we went to lift the wood. All three of us (two guys bigger than me) had a very very hard time lifting the wood. We figured that it was about 60+ kgs!! I could not believe that these woman were lifting such a weight and then walking 2-10kms with it. I had a new respect for them!! I gave them some of my food, some sweets and some water.

I wanted to show you an interesting thing. Check out the shoes on the two boys in the front. We see a great deal of these. They are a one piece rubber shoe. They have no inserts and no cloth or material. Just rubber molded to look like a runner. Sometimes they have laces. We see a great deal of these.

We decided to try our hand at pumping water. This one actually worked and produced good water. The yellow pails are what people use to transport the water home. Again it is normally the women and its on a long pole across their shoulders. Its equal to carrying to cases of 24 beer.... Very heavy and carried for up to 10 kms.

Locals lining up at the water pump

UNMO House...

2010-02-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

So I finally took some pictures at the UNMO house where most of my friends live. They pay an average of $150 USD per month. There is No A/C, only electricity is from a generator that gets turned on from 730pm - 1100 pm. The water is from the local wells brought in by donkey (not drinkable).

This is there private space... 1 cot with a crappy mattress and what ever you can string up for privacy.

The eating area

The shower and toilet. To shower you get a bucket of donkey water and a cup.

Hmmm kinda glad I chose to live at the MSA camp for $660 per month... I think it's worth it...

2010-02-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

Keili kids come out to greet us as we drive by

Modes of Transport - Donkey Cart - Very common transport - poor things - very abused!

Mode of Transport - This is a delivery truck, a bus/taxi, a troop carrier. And All-in-one transport vehicle... very often broken down or upside down. There are no rule as to how much, how high or how many people you can put on to one of these trucks.

Another happy village...

My new friends.....

Internet is working so I will post more pics

2010-02-25T02:20:00.000-08:00

The Force Commander speaking to the protection force from India

Kai and I on a patrol

Nomads, notice the age of the kids.... they are responsible for heards of cows and goats

This one pissed me off and I caused a little stink... but not as much as my friend from AUZ caused..

Back in Nov I, along with 6 other people, became sick. The only common factor was the water. When I approached the Pak Army commander about this he wouldn't believe me (part of their cultural pride). Anyways, two weeks ago we had two members feeling unwell... the water containers (which is where we get our clean, purified drinking water from) were just about empty. I decided to take a look inside to see how clean and fresh they were. This is what I had found... sand, dirt, a plastic bag and some sort of mold/spore floating in the water.

One person seen me taking the pic and he asked what I was doing. He quickly reported this to someone else who was kind of responsible for the water. He checked the water and reported it to someone else ect...... From what I understand a few (2-3) people were now worried about their jobs. I decided not to do anything more as to let the local process deal with it and to see if it satisfied me. My AUZ friend from UNPOL took the pics and set them to AUZ where they ended up eventually in the high commisioners office and eventually they got back to Khartoum and heads did role...

I am still very very cautious about the water...but its hard not to drink this water when you need so much every day....

More Pics

2010-02-25T02:10:00.000-08:00

Women heading to the market. Notice they carry everything on their heads. The one on the left is carrying a bed which is also a couch. It is the most common sitting/sleeping device in Sudan. The middle woman has coils of rope made from vines and other materials.

The kids of Doya with their new ball... they don't look happy as they were made to stop playing so that the picture could be taken.

More people heading to the market. They can sometimes walk up to 4 or 5 hours to get to a good market.

This is me briefing the UNMIS Force Commander, Deputy Commander, Sector Commander and many others who I do not know... It was fun... I was able to finally express our concerns to the highest level!

Thanks MISS LAM! LOL This was a recent gift for my.... ummmm 25th B-Day....

Finally some pics

2010-02-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

A small village that supports the north while they are surrounded by the south..will be interesting in their future.. They loved the soccer ball and we have video of the kids jumping and then running off to play with it...

This is me educating the head of the village, through an language assistant, on the ways to mark a found land mine or in this case an unexploded mortor rocket.

MOM...Look what I found. We were thankful that the local kids did not dig this up to see what makes it go BOOM!

Finally some pics with local herders and their ride...

Another happy village receives a soccer ball...

Friday 19 Feb

2010-02-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

It was nice to have a day off. We still had training to do and I had a little paperwork to complete.

The night before I ran 6km had a pot of K-D and two beers and was in bed by 11pm. Friday Kai and I made Pancakes for breakfast (haven't had any since Christmas morning) and then I made some chocolate chip cookies. As I made the cookies the chips melted...LOL They became chocolate cookies...LOL

About 1:00pm it was getting real hot. I measured the temp outside. It was 55 degrees in the sun and 48 degress in the shade with 20% humidity. Inside my cabin with the A/C on it was 35 degrees!!! Thats a HOT DAY!!!

So the rest of the day I did my laundry and cleaned my cabin while watching movies. I think I watched 3 movies that day. It was a nice day to chill out and not to have to deal with too many people... Maybe I am getting older...LOL

We found out some interesting things during the week and actually witnessed some things that we have never before witnessed. The annoying part is that the leader did not mention it in his report until a day later when I mentioned to him the massive immportance of what we had seen. Only then did he mention it to someone... even then I am not sure if he actually did.

What we had seen went against the UN and international humanitarian law. And we were the first to have witnessed it.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to try to work more on the bar here. If I don't no one else will. There is NO will or drive in almost anyone you meet here. The problem with working on the bar is that it is so hot during the day. At 9:30pm it is still 40 degrees here.

I will try once again to get some pictures up soon. The internet has been slower then ever before.

I am counting down the weeks and days till I make my move home....

I will update again next week.

Mike

Another Week in Sudan

2010-02-17T09:30:00.001-08:00

Well it has been another interesting week in the Sudan.

The week started on Sat with a training exercise and debrief occurring at my team site. The exercise was the first of its kind being run here in the Sudan by UNMIS. The good news it that the exercise highlighted all of the problems that I have already pointed out to my team mates and others in the chain of command. I find that it is amazing that there are so many people here who sole job it is to forward an email without ever reading it or analyzing it for its relevant information. We were directed (ordered) from our sector to patrol various areas and villages over the past three days that DID NOT EXIST!! That’s right! The next level of command here failed to realize what was real and what was part of a training exercise. When we informed them they just said…Um just go anyways and see. In other words they can't and not are not willing to make a critical decision and question their superiors on what the actual intention is and how they would like it carried out. This did cause us to waste 2 days and 15 hours of driving on nothing! I was mad! I finally took the reins and went around my team site leader and started asking many questions and formulating answers then manipulating other service officers until I received the answers I wanted. From there I developed a plan that went against orders and I implemented it with the approval of only one person. It worked out great.

The best part of this exercise was that I was asked to brief the Task Force Commander of UNMIS on the exercise and related matters. For 35 minutes I had the full attention of the commander, his deputy, my sector commander and his deputy and about 24 other decision makers. I, one they asked me specific questions, was able to express to these people the concerns that our team site has had and have been trying to deal with for over 6 months. All of the items were given approval and changes were made within hours of the briefing. Finally something has gone right! The sad part is that in order to get a simple tool to make the job safer I had to speak to the highest military person. That is a poor command system.

Over the past two days the temperature has climbed very hi. The other day it was 36 degrees in my cabin with the A/C on full. Yesterday I was on a long range patrol and we had the A/C in the car on full and we were still sweating the entire trip. Last night I slept outside (as we were on the patrol) and there was a large (massive) rock near us. At 1000pm we could still feel the heat coming off of the rock! It was very hard to sleep last night as it was hot and muggy. I figured by 1000pm it was about 36-38 degrees. They say it will get hotter as we move closer to the rainy season in Apr/May.

On Monday I finished teaching first aid to the local police officer who were on the Crowd control course. They loved the information and had some interesting questions. It is really unusual to teach to people who have nothing. When I was looking for medical supplies (bandages, splints, slings) I went through the pile of garbage behind the police station. I will send pics soon…I hope. I was telling them that if someone feels faint you should lay them down. Then when they feel better sit them up on the ground for a few minutes. After that sit them in a chair and then slowly allow them to stand up and see how they feel. A question was raised… “we don’t have any chairs, what should we do”. Other questions included if someone is bleeding what do we do. So the answer is; stop/control the bleed and get them to a Dr. Of course I was reminded that a Dr is probably a 4 – 8 hour donkey ride away!!! Two men had very interesting questions about what to do if a woman’s menstrual period doesn’t stop and she keeps bleeding. What can they do for her? Remember in Sudan a large number of women die during child birth compared to an industrialized nation. I also had to remember that in order for the woman to get help it would once again mean a donkey or truck ride for several hours.

We celebrated the Chinese New Years the other day with a nice Chinese dinner prepared by our two Chinese officers. We even had Chinese music and chop sticks! The food was great!

We now have a pet Dog at the UNMO house. He was given to one of my team mates during a patrol. The dog (5 months old) would not leave the members side during the meeting with the village elder. As the patrol was about to leave the elder gave the dog to the patrol member who was the driver. The dog sat on his lap and curled up and didn’t more for the 2 hour drive back to the base. Again pics as soon as I can.

I was introducing a new UNMO to the town by patrolling through the village and showing him all of the important areas. There was a group of kids smiling and waving at us so we decided to stop and say hi. I introduced them to BUBBLES and gave away four bottles of bubbles for them to play with… They loved it and were fascinated by them.

We have been hearing rumours of the south force doing some bad things but we have never been able to confirm it or find proof. This week has been a good one for me as I have confirmed a place that was only a rumour and I was witness to another action by the south which is considered illegal by international standards. A good week!

Time is flying by at this point. I just looked at the calendar and realized that I only have 2 months left in Sudan. 10 weeks total! I still have one more CTO (holiday) where I will be visiting Tanzania, Africa and Cairo, Egypt.

I will try to get some pics us as soon as I can however the internet has been extremely slow this week.

Mike

Return to SUDAN.....

2010-02-12T09:23:00.001-08:00

Well I figured it was about time for me to update you on life in Sudan once again.

I had a great trip abroad seeing Barcelona - Spain, Cannes, Nice, Aix-de-Provence – France, Monte-Carlo - Monaco, Genova, La Spezia, Cinque-Terre, Pisa, Florence, Rome (Vatican City), Naples, Pompeii and Siena – Italy. The biggest disappointment was the food. I guess I expected more flavor and variety. Over the entire trip was great!
But back to Sudan!

During my trip I received great news from Canada house… They found my Christmas lights! While in Spain I also found my Disco ball. Once I arrived back at the team site I had two gold bags waiting for me and inside there was boxes from my folks as well as Derrick and Melissa. In those boxes I received another surprise from my cousin Lorelei which was the Steam Whistle Beer Bottle openers for the new bar!!

On the note of the bar…well my suspicions were correct… nothing gets done fast in the Sudan or the UN. My bar and the camp site haven’t changed a bit except for the missing containers (shipped to another team site in the south). Even the garden didn’t get planted after I was promised it would have been.

It was hard coming back to the team site and Sudan. After spending 17 days in the history of Europe it is hard to come back to the bleak desert and brown wasteland. The coolest site was when I flew across the Sahara and looked out the window to see the very vast empty Sahara desert….It was an awesome sight.

I was invited to teach at the Sudan Police force Crowd Control Course this week. I was teaching emergency first aid and tactical patient removal. It was very interesting teaching first aid with the understanding that there are NO first aid kits anywhere and that the only supplies are those on the ground and around the area. Before the start of the course I wandered through the street and picked up some garbage that I could use in the first aid course. For instance plastic bag to use as a bandage to tie off a limb. There is no 911 for them to call and no ambulance is EVER coming! The ride to the hospital may be on the back of a donkey and may take 3-5 hours. Oh yeh… and there is no cell phone coverage in about 95% of the area.

The students loved the first part of the course. The second part will be next week,
I have been on two patrols this week that went well. One village was suffering while the other was doing quite well. I gave the first village a soccer ball and some pencils and books. They have a school that is not recognized by the government therefore it gets no support. They welcomed the pencils and books and loved the soccer ball.

I have come to learn that in Sudan and in the UN nothing gets done fast. I have also learned (although it took several times) that you can propose an idea, get people on board and willing to work and the minute they leave the room they forget all about it and act as if it never happened and they do nothing that they were supposed to. I also trained two guys to take over my job while I was away so that all of the daily work would not pile up. When I came back it was just as I suspected. NOTHING was done! Thanks “Team Mates”….

I am starting to look to the future of coming home. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish more here before I leave. I am still trying to get the CIMIC projects up and running. I have calculated that I only have 7 weeks on site left on this tour. The remainder will be occupied with another CTO trip and then the 2 weeks of check out procedures. I am getting concerned with the dates as they coincide with the elections here and that could cause problems.

The outdoor bar is receiving a new coat of paint as we speak. I had sent in a request for funds and support and it was approved. The paint is going on this week. Repairs to the cement floor will happen next week and then the new lights, disco ball and then the Steam Whistle beer openers. I am looking forward to its completion.

We lost our one day off this week due to an exercise in our area. That means my one day of sleeping in and catching up on the work that was not done while I was away is now occupied with a mini exercise. I am hoping on getting to the local hospital today to drop off some donated medications and toys for the children’s ward.

I dropped off a box of medications to a happy Dr at the local hospital from one of our German UNMOS from Damazin. The hospital said they can definitely use the medications. The Dr also asked me if I was the one who brought the children toys when I told him I was he was so happy and asked if I can come back when they give some of them to local sick children.

Culture Shock....LOL

2010-01-19T13:46:00.000-08:00

So it is amazing for an Arabic/Muslim (not to be confused as one in the same) that punishes gay people and punishes for public displays of affection between married couples and relationships and yet two men who are friends or who are having a conversation are allowed to walk hand in hand.

Just bringing this up for the in the past week I have had my hand held (daintily) by another man well walking and having a conversation with him. It does throw you off a little at first and it is a bizarre feeling but you try to appreciate the culture of it and carry on.

This will be my last blog I think until Feb 7/8th area. I am heading out on my vacation to Europe.

As of the 20th of Jan (Today) I am now 50% done my mission in Sudan. There is only 14 weeks left until I make my way back to Canada and my friends and family.

There was news from one of the other sectors which is out hottest spot in Sudan. Shots (warning shots) were fired at a patrol last week. There was also another patrol who were stopped at gun point and made to get out of their car. The patrol members were separated by religion. after about an hour they were all let go with no injuries. This makes me kinda glad that I am in a fairly peaceful area.

One of the other UNMO's from Canada came across an Alligator on one of their patrols.

6 people were hanged along the Nile river the other day for starting a riot a few years back which resulted in some deaths. The riot was started because the Gov was forcing the eviction and movement of IDP's from their shanty town to a place in the desert in the middle of no where.

Other then that I am still trying to get a few of the CIMIC projects up and running by the time I finish the mission. Good news as well. I had submitted a proposal for improvements to our little bar shelter and some of them were approved. So I now have paint and a painter. I also have cement and a person to complete the repair work. So just a few more things for me to do and the bar will be complete!

I will write again when I return to Sudan.

Take care, be safe!

Mike

Long Trip North

2010-01-15T03:11:00.000-08:00

It was my turn to go on another long range patrol to a village that is located at the very top (north) of our area of responsibility. We packed our gear and gassed our vehicles. I was the patrol navigator and communicator. I was located in the passenger seat of the 3rd vehicle. My driver is a nice guy who is a Major with the Chinese army. The only problem with him is that he speaks less than 1% English!!! There are only a couple of requirements to work as an UNMO and one is that you MUST speak English (even as a second or 5th language). From what I understand is that the English test they administer here in Sudan has been copied and circulated around many countries and the officers memorize what answers to check off in which box. The other problem is if they fail the test then there is a great deal of paperwork in order to send the person home. Also, knowing how the UN works, they would fear insulting the home country. So, I have a driver who, when you ask him “How are you” he quickly pulls out a pack of cigarettes and says Yes. That seems to be his main MO is to offer cigarettes to distract from the fact he has NO IDEA of what you just said! So it is going to be a LONG LONG 120kms!!!

Our wonderful UN tires, Notice no tread? Oh yah and the patch job...LOL

BTW just a reminder this is NOT the 401! 120kms can take 2 days! It's like the 401 in a snow storm.

So I make sure that I have my MP3 thumb drive that plugs into the lighter socket and plays through the stereo. As we head out the first tune is one that TODD made!! Before I left I asked him to make me a CD of all of his music. This is music (dance tracks) that he wrote, produced and edited! It was nice to have something familiar in this very quiet car…LOL

Along the road we passed many villages. The kids yell out Ka-wa-ga which means white man. Read the posts from Uganda… They are always smiling and eager to run to the road to meet you. As we drive I realized that I forgot to tell you that many of the areas remind me of fall back home. The leaves have changed colours and are falling to the ground. Winds make them fall quicker and there is always the crunching sound as you walk around. The main difference is that it is 40 degrees and dry! The leaves are falling and dying due to a lack of water. Some areas still have very green trees and it also depends on the type of tree. Some do better with very deep roots that can find deep water.

So it took us just over 7 hours to travel 120kms and arrive at our destination. The village, I am happy to say has done very well for itself and doesn’t need any support or help. The only thing it requests is a secondary school. These people are so keen for education for their children.
We did our task and began the 7 hour drive back to our team site. We ended up stopping in a small village just after dark where we met the Sheik. He invited us to stay at the local school overnight. Once camp was set up and the Pak Army was busy cooking our dinner I became bored. So I rummaged through my back pack and found the Frisbee that I was going to give to a school (only have one soccer ball left) and I found a glow stick. So in the middle of this dark school yard we taped a glow stick on to the underside of a Frisbee and had a game of Frisbee with the Sheik, school head master, our language assistant and my two German friends Matt and Kai. It was awesome and the sheik and teacher loved it. I did give them the Frisbee the next day as a gift for their school. I also gave the head master pencils from Lynda and books, erasers and bubbles from my mom. Ohhh they LOVED the bubbles. They had never seen such a thing and thought I was a little crazy! LOL. Even my language assistant (translator) asked if I had any more bubbles so he could give them to his little girl at home. Of course I did!

This is a tree in the middle of the school. Hanging in the tree is the school "bell" and on the ground are the hammers for ringing the bell. Please zoom in on the pic and look at the bell and the hammers... Thay are all Tank and rocket shells!!!

The night was spent under the stars. It was an awesome night. The temperature dropped a little and there was a slight breeze. There was no moon but the sky was clear and there are no city lights so the sky was crystal clear! I laid in my tent with no fly and fell asleep looking up at the stars. What a RUDE awaking! The sun comes up at about 615am. BUT at 0501am the local ROOSTER which was located about 100ft from us decided it was time for all of SUDAN to wake up!! Once he started then of course all other roosters with in 100miles decided to call out to him and challenge him to see who could be the loudest! If I only had a gun…. We had to get up by 6am as this would give us an hour to eat breakfast and get cleaned up to carry on our journey home. This was mainly due to the fact the kids arrive for school at 730am and we were sleeping in the middle of their school yard and inside their class rooms.LOL. Matt decided to sleep inside of the Tukul classroom that night. I was amazing to walk into this grass hut and feel the warmth that was trapped in there from the day’s heat. It was almost too warm. During the day the Tukul traps the night cold in for quite some time.

While driving to our camp location

I forgot to mention that this place we traveled to was the most northern place in our area and why this is significant is because our entire area is located NORTH of the 1-1-56 line and therefore is susposed to be 100% Northern controlled. But as you may recall my area is a contested area. MANY wars and battles were fought here over the past 24 years. The area is now controlled by the north and the south. So as we made this trip north we could notice the difference in flags being flown (review flags in the very first of my posts from Sep/Oct) and type of uniforms we would see.

There is also one other problem… With every war, especially in underdeveloped countries there is a heavy use of land mines. This trip north really drove that point home. On a very large leg of the trip there were non-stop rock markers of danger areas and areas that had been cleared. You always drive a little slower and more cautiously when you see the red rocks! Check out the pics for ideas on what the rocks look like.

Land Mine area Rock Markers.... White = Good, Red = Bad, Blue = We haven't figured that one out yet... LOL

So we got home safe. I had several calls from the CIMIC officer from Canada who works in Khartoum and she informs me that they liked my project ideas so much that they have gone ahead and completed all of the paperwork for me and did most of the leg work from the UN side. They want me to get at least 2 of the projects up and running when I return from my time off. It’s going to be busy when I return! We are no longer going to educate the children from the village where 6 kids have sustained major injuries from playing with landmines. Turns out there is a group already doing that. However they had never thought of, and absolutely love my idea, of making t-shirts for all of the kids that attend the training. On the shirt we will have a cartoon graphic that shows the kids that landmines and UXO’s are very dangerous. The kids will were the shirts for several years. It gives free lessons to anyone that looks at the shirt! The goal is to educate as many kids as possible before there are any more accidents.

Tomorrow I meet with one of the heads of the local government. I have been warned about him but he is also the one who I need to take the lead on my other projects of employment and education for locals and a recycling program.

I will let you know how it goes.

Matt and Kai, my German friends and camp mates.

Nite

PS: These are Nomads, the women are from the Nubian tribe, notice the costumes they wear. Thay all wear the same, the boys hair cuts are often shaped like Mohawks. Notice the braceletts.

Long Range Patrol - Video!?!?

2010-01-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

I figured I would try to download one of my many videos... I think this might work better in Khartoum as there is a faster internet connection

My Food

2010-01-11T03:29:00.001-08:00

Another Pic of Rainy season! Not now...

My food storage

My patrol food... Munchies

Soups and canned goods... enough for a year or two

So, When I say I have milk and bread this is what I mean. The milk, while closed does not need to be kept cool. Only once opened. This bread is the only style of bread we can get. It is very thin. The lighter is just to demonstrate size......

Pics

2010-01-11T03:20:00.000-08:00

Me answering many Christmas cards from Canadian Kids (St Nicholas School) - Thanks Ken! Notice the Mats Sundin mini hockey jersey!!

Enlarge to see where I live and work

The big picture - On the left is the Pak Army camp and on the right is the MSA camp that I live in.

Ambulance

2010-01-11T02:55:00.000-08:00

Our local Baker and behind him is our fresh bread

At the Hospital they have an ambulance, the guy that sits with it is strictly a driver. the local Dr or RN will go with the Ambulance if required...

Guess who made the ambulance?

Not much room or supplies in here... just the basics...

An update......

2010-01-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

Just a pic I found of Rainy season......

Well it’s been a week since any updates as it has been busy.

The other day we were notified of a possible mine accident in one of our distant villages. Three of the injured were brought to our village hospital and one person had died on the scene. I heard it was men and not children this time. I went to the local hospital with the UNPOL to do an investigation. Once all of the formalities were complete and we had our information I spoke with the head doctor and nurse about the various wards the hospital had.

It turns out they have several wards which have a few patients in each. During rainy season they get quite full. The next day I returned to the hospital with a box of toys I had received from my cousin Tammy and a few other people. This included stickers for the walls (no windows in south Sudan). The Dr and RN were quite happy to accept the toys for their children’s ward. I was given a tour of the hospital. The children’s ward had approx 5 kids in it. All were infant and toddlers. Some had surgery and were recuperating.

I was also able to get a look at the local ambulance. They only have one and guess what?! It was built by a Canadian company!! They only have basic supplies and the driver normally grabs the Dr or RN if they are avail and then they head off to where ever the call came from. 99% of all patients make their own way to the hospital. The ambulance doesn’t more to often. It will also provide transport to patients that need to be moved to Damazin 3 hours away.

I also received 3 more gold bags the other day. I think my team mates are starting to get jealous. I now feel that with my holidays and time left at the site I do officially have enough food!! LOL I will always accept “Nestea Ice Tea” mix… As it is my favorite.

I received a weird call the other day from Canada House. They had a box from the Norwegian Consulate marked MIKE. It was opened. There were some wrapped gifts and a soccer ball. They figured it might be mine as there are only two Canadian MIKE’s and it had a soccer ball! Sure enough it was for me. Thanks Marry-Ann and I am not sure if that meant the package made it to Norwich or what happened. Thanks for the DVD’s as well!!

So.. just a note PLEASE do not send any more KRAFT DINNER….LOL I am now the owner of 18 boxes!! The funny part is that we only got milk in town last week and it may be gone by next week…LOL And like I said… I don’t think I will need any more real food… Mom supplied LOADS!! I think I am well stocked for the rest of the tour.

I can’t wait for the new bottle openers that my cousin Lorelei was able to get for us. I am still working on the improvements for our bar. Next painting may occur tomorrow as it is a holiday here called CPA Day. This day marks the 5th year of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South Sudan which ended the 21 year war and is the reason I am here today. I am the duty officer tomorrow which means I am in uniform and have the overall watch of the camp.

I received another batch of Christmas cards and letters from various Canadians and from Captain Ken Perry’s school and the class he teaches. I spent yesterday answering many of the letters and cards.

I even received a Mats Sundin mini Jersey and hockey card from Matthew who is one of Ken’s students.

I have two patrols this week including a Long Range patrol. I am also being assigned to meet with one of our local military force commanders who is not really a nice man. We will see how that goes.

I am looking forward to my trip away next week. I leave the team site on the 17th Jan to conduct some business in Damazin and then Khartoum.

Take care. Mike

Teamwork.... accomplish anything!

Thanks Again

2010-01-07T10:14:00.001-08:00

I just received 4 more gold bags full of boxes...... I now have no room to sleep!! LOL

Thanks everyone for the great packages... I will prob not need any more for the remainder of my tour! :)

Thanks again....

Hope to see you soon

Mike

Sooooooo COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-01-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

So today we were on another patrol. I was the assigned driver and my German friend Matt was my navigator and communicator. We were heading along one of our normal routes having a casual morning with the music playing and the windows down (it was a cool morning of about 27 degrees).

We were about 10-14 kms away from camp (about 20-30 minutes) when Matt sat straight up and was looking at something. As I have explained before as the driver you can not afford to take your eyes off the road immediately in front of you for more then 10 sec as the road will change and you'll hit a rut, rock or hole.

All of a sudden Matt is yelling "look look over there what is that?" I try to slow down and get a look and what I see is what appears to be the ass end of 3 rather good sized LIONS!!!!!

And then over to our left someone spots another one in the distance. They were running away from us and we only caught a quick glimpse of them but it was AWESOME!!! Oh did mention they were heading in the direction of our village and our camp?

We figured we'd wait till we got home to see if they made it into town LOL

The patrol went well. Another ( and my last) soccer ball was delivered to a needy village.

The next day we had off!! I am not sure why... but I'll take another day off. Really I still go to work but in shorts and T Shirt and i still do work but only 2-3 hours. We (Kai and I) decided to finally begin the next phase of the Bar and we painted it ( all of the posts). It was painted UN Blue (its all the market had). The next phase will be buying bamboo for the walls.

The paint looks great!

I have only 2 weeks before I leave again to Europe. I have to get some CIMIC projects off the ground by then (it will be hard to do). I have found some interesting avenues to help this country and this community plus one other community.

Our village has 6 main roads leading to other villages and the rest of Sudan. These roads, as i have mentioned and shown pictures, are BAD! The roads get destroyed during rainy season and never get fixed. I have met with a UN civil engineer who is here working on one main road and have spoken about hiring locals to provide manual labour for other roads. He loved the idea and he brought up points like if they just do this simple task then the roads will survive the rainy season. I Think it is do able.

This is also part of my mandate as there are many unemployed males and females between 20-35 y/o. As part of security and peace it would be good if they had jobs so that when the elections come around and the army offers them employment for a VERY small wage they can say no as they will be making a better wage with the road crew and NOT have to leave their families.

The second project is a little sad. So far in the past 2 months in a large village 6 children have been wounded and disfigured by playing with land mines! One child had died. As far as I know there has NOT been any new education programs for the children of this village. This is a project I will get off the ground and implement in the next 8 weeks. Hopefully before any more children get hurt or die!

So today we have found out that our camp generators are no good. One has died and the other overheats after a couple hours. so each day around 5:00pm they shut down the good one for 1 hour. This of course is at a hot point of the day. I am typing this blog with my window and door open, I am dripping and its 39 degrees here!! No AC no FAN!!! I'm melting!!

PS still looking for a disco ball and a wall mounted beer opener for the Canadian/German UN CLUB!! Thanks!! :)

HAPPY New Years!!

2010-01-01T06:05:00.001-08:00

I had a great new years although being away from Family and friends makes it a little different.

I wish you all the best in the new year and lets hope its a year of PEACE in Sudan!

LRP3

2009-12-31T03:09:00.001-08:00

Soccer ball to the most southern remote village we have ever been to!

Pictures don't do this justice... Our river banks often go straight up and down...

Talking to our language assistant. Most of them are school teachers but the government pays very little to teachers so they come to the UN and make 4-5x their taecher wage

photos dec

2009-12-31T03:09:00.000-08:00

Soccer ball to the most southern remote village we have ever been to!

Pictures don't do this justice... Our river banks often go straight up and down

LRP 2

2009-12-31T02:45:00.000-08:00

A river that actually has a bridge!!! BUT also has a broken down bus/truck in the middle of it!!

Here is the truck/bus we helped reload after they helped us get out of the deep sand/river

One very LARGE sand trap!

Burried deep! We used a wich from my car to help pull as the driver used 4x4 and the locals pushed

LRP

2009-12-31T02:34:00.000-08:00

The feast - Chicken

Well lit tree

Long Range patrol - Pee break

Stuck in the river (no water of course) These locals were busy unlaoding one of the big trucks which was also stuck. They stopped to help us. Total 2 vehicles stuck for at least 1 hour. When we finally got out of this situation (with the villagers help) most of the PAK army I was with (who didn't help much) and my team members went to get in their cars and drive away... I stopped all of them and made these locals helped us and without that help we would still be stuck. So, for the next 20 minutes we (the entire team) assisted the locals to reload their trucks with over 60 cases of pop destined for the next village. The locals were thankful as was I. PS in the river there was NO shade and we were pushing and pulling and it was 40+ degrees!!!.

2009-12-31T02:31:00.001-08:00

The tree before the lights burnt out

One well fed cat that night

Yatha's

Some dancing - Ghana and Rwanda

Santa!

pics dec

2009-12-31T02:31:00.000-08:00

The tree before the lights burnt out

One well fed cat that night

Yatha's

Some dancing - Ghana and Rwanda

Santa!

Party

2009-12-31T02:24:00.001-08:00

Pre-party!

Enjoying the first night at the Canada/German club!! LOL oh and our honourary Fijian. This fiji police officer calls me "YATHA" which in Fiji means Namesake - his name is Michael as well. The thing we are sitting on is a very common Sudan bed/couch. This one (as all are) is hand made.

First drink in the newly lit bar

Michael (Yatha) me and Matt from Germany

Cheers from SUDAN!!

2009-12-31T02:10:00.000-08:00

Setting up the Christmas lights

Enough said! EH!

Kai hanging the German flags...... The Canadian ones were bigger!!

The lights at night... we do have a problem now :( the lights were from Canada (110 v) in Sudan the power is 230 v - all the lights are burning out or melting.... they will be all gone soon :(

Christmas dinner party... UNPOL and UNMO

My room on Christmas morning! YAHH!!!!

Some of the team... Auz, Rwanda, Peru, China, Germany, Napal, Equador, Fiji and Philipines

X-Mas Prep

2009-12-31T01:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve dinner & Party. We also welcomed 3 new members and said farwell to one that was leaving

Yeh yeh,....

Kai from Germany

pics

2009-12-31T01:53:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas tree - The before shot!

Now the tree has been painted RED and we start to decorate.

A new road, fairly smooth (by Sudan standards) notice the rocks down the centre and on the right and left... these are the road lines... no paint here... LOL

This is a typical river that we will drive down, you must move slowly over the sharp rocks so that they do not puncture your tires..

Everyone helping with the decorations

Pics

2009-12-31T01:48:00.000-08:00

Another LARGE River - Completely Dry

I soccer balls = Lots of smiles

They say only God/Allah knows how the rocks end up on top like that

Another dry river... Imagine how large this river is in the wet season

My Christmas tree from REAGAN!! Thanks!!

Pics

2009-12-31T01:38:00.000-08:00

The largest type of tree in Sudan called the Baobab tree - It grows some fruit. The wood from this tree can not be used for anything. It doesn't even burn well.

A soccer ball for a large school without one. Look at the faces!!

Sudan on fire again. The birds wait just outside the fire to catch all of the critters that are trying to escape.

This started out with 3 kids on a remote road... Notice the uniform, he is a captain like me LOL

This is the view of a patrol if your NOT the lead vehicle! Try seeing the bumps in the road now,....

Long Range patrol

2009-12-31T01:18:00.000-08:00

This truck is the devil that destroys all of the roads... this is a bus, a cab, a delivery truck a carry all.... They are always broken down and they take anyone that needs a ride (for a price) and you can sit anywhere, including the roof

How to fix a brake fluid leak using a plastic bag, string and a small peice of tape

Our camp site

Our tents, my legs on the left

The PAK army making fresh Cipati

More pics

2009-12-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

Night time on the long range patrol - my team mates

This are the BAD roads, the ruts have been made in the rainy season by large trucks and buses, now they are hard as rock and make driving very difficult. If your tire slips from the area you want it on then you will be stuck... this had happened to me twice now... It sucks!

The village.... Beletuma

Hmmm both men are from the army of the South.

Pics

2009-12-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

Another Village with the kids...

An old truck left over for the War

We are constantly being challanged on our patrols, pot holes, missing roads, large rocks and of course COWS!

This is a pic of a river. Notice the width of the river... It is completly dry now and the floor is sand..

Pictures

2009-12-30T10:26:00.001-08:00

I am sorry as I had thought that the new picture web site was going to help things... the prob is that I found that web site GREAT and FAST! However I forgot one thing....I was in Khartoum! not Kurmuk...

So I will attempt to load some pics tomorrow from the office as we just got the internet back up and running there... I have many new pics... If that doesn't work I will go back to loading 5 at a time on Blogger....

I have just returned from a very long range patrol, went for a run, had some dinner and now I am ready for bed...

I will tell you all about the adventure tomorrow (inshala - "god willing").

Nite

28th......chillin

2009-12-30T10:23:00.000-08:00

28 Dec

Another day at the office. Today we bought blue paint for our bar. There is also some sad news…We had a dinner party last night in the bar and slowly the lights began to burn out. I am afraid that they may all burn out in the very near future. Sudan electricity is 240. I don’t think the lights can handle it.

I was also happy to find out that my market now has milk! We will see how long that will last. Often in Sudan when you find a product that you light the next week it will be gone and never found again.

I Have MILK!

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-25T02:26:00.000-08:00

I woke up and reported to the office (alone) as I was the duty officer for the day. From there I began to prepare breakfast for the Germans and Auzies. We made pancakes with maple syrup. After breakfast I went back to my cabin and made some tea and opened my gifts.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning my cabin, reading a book and then prepping for dinner.
I had also spent about 3 hours replying to various Canadians including 3 schools that had sent Christmas cards and wishes to “Any Canadian Forces Soldier”. I received 2 family photos, a 3 page letter, and 2 post cards from a northern school in Nunivet. They had an old pic of a Canadian Forces member of the back prob from WW2. One was Air Force! They are now posted on my wall.

I decided, thanks to my folks, to have a traditional Christmas dinner. I invited the Germans to join me as I would end up with too much food.

We made a great dinner of Turkey, Stuffing, Gravy, Peas and Carrots, Potatoes and Rice. The amazing thing is that the entire meal was ingredients from Canada! The Turkey, Gravy, Potatoes and veggies were from a can. Yes the Turkey was actually very good. The rice and stuffing were from a box… the stuffing was GREAT!! For dessert we had raspberry/cherry jello with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. It is amazing what you can throw together out here.

That night I made a bunch of phone calls, watched a movie and went to bed.

Merry Christmas everyone….

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T02:24:00.000-08:00

Well we have returned from the Long Range Patrol. I have filled my reports and had a shower. It was time (3:00pm) to head over to the UNMO House and help with some of the preparations for our Christmas Eve party.

One of the guys picked up a tree on his patrol. There are no evergreen trees here so this one is best described as a large Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We got together at the UNMO house for party prep and tree decorating. We painted; I mean I painted the tree red. We waited for the paint to dry and then the guys decorated it using a combination of my lights (from mom) and stars from Lynda and of course a Santa Head.

Myself and Kai (German) decided to get the new German/Canadian bar up and running. We spent a couple hours hanging the lights that were sent from home. This was also a great opportunity to hang the Canadian Flag Banners and the Molson Canadian Banner. We have decided that we also need a DISCO BALL for the bar. Shame it wouldn’t be here for New Years.

Later that night we had a Christmas Eve dinner of Chicken and Fries and salad (Sudan style). There were speeches and welcomes (3 new members) and a good bye (1 guy leaving soon). See pics.

It was a nice night and we wrapped things up around midnight.

Long Range Patrol

2009-12-23T02:22:00.000-08:00

I was the leader of my first Long Range Patrol. This means that the village is far enough, or that the roads are bad enough, that we will have to spend the night along the road somewhere. We got within about 1 hour the village we needed to be at only to find out that the route we were given ends and does not continue any further. So we spoke to that village and then made our way home. En route to the village and one the way home we had to pass through two hills (mountains) on a very rough boulder covered road. This road took us over the middle part of the two mountains. Just prior to driving on this road I had to get out of the car and take a bearing (compass measurement) as we were informed that on both sides of the road there were mines that have been there since the war. Don’t worry we were 100% safe…just as long as we didn’t stop on the road and then decide to take a walk to use the bathroom LOL

We were trying to push back to the team site but dusk quickly fell and I had to make a decision. The regulations say no driving after dark or 6pm. And it was now 630 and very dark already. Many of the people on the patrol wanted to push forward to at least one or two more villages. I decided that my driver would not be able to safely navigate the awful road so I decided that we would stop just outside the next village.

We found a great area. The PAK army began to set up and then they started to make dinner including baking fresh flat bread. It was awesome. We sat around and ate my junk food until the food was ready.

That night we slept under the stars in the Sudan desert/forest. It was really cool and relaxing.. until you start hearing things.. LOL I was sleeping in a mosquito dome tent built for one. I didn’t even put on the outside fly as there was no chance of rain. So while you sleep you are looking up at the stars…

The next morning we got up with the sun, had breakfast and made our way home….Oh this was after we did a quick check of our wonderful (sarcasm) UN vehicles. We found a cap missing off of one of the batteries and there was acid all over the place. And my vehicle (which the driver had said just before we stopped for the night that the brakes felt weird) had no brake fluid! The PAK army brings a mechanic along for these trips so we put him to work…. The battery acid cover was replaced by a water bottle; it screwed in nicely to the same hole. The brakes it turned out had a major leak near the rear axle. The mechanic went under the car and sealed the leak with a plastic bag, string, and duct tape. He did tell us not to use the brakes on the way home and just to use the hand brake….yeh, like that can work on these roads!

Anyways, we made it home and gave a great deal of work to our local mechanics.

KEILI

2009-12-22T02:08:00.000-08:00

Went on a patrol today to the village of KEILI. It is one of our larger villages and it supports about 5 other villages in the area.

After meeting with the village sheik I asked if we could stop by the local school. This school has about 300+ students and 5 teachers. I spoke to one of the senior teachers and asked if they could use some pencils, erasers, books and maybe a Soccer Ball. When the kids seen the soccer ball they went nuts! As we inflated the ball I noticed some kids in a field playing soccer (they were not paying attention to us) they were playing with what appeared to be a large ball of string and rubber about the size of a soft ball. The teacher and the kids were very happy to have a new soccer ball for their school. See the pics.

I have also included some pictures of major rivers. The funny part is that you will notice that there is NO water!! This is what they mean when they say its DRY season. These rivers are not passable during wet season and there is 0% water during dry season...now I know why these people are suffering.

WOW – CHRISTMAS HAS ARRIVED!!!

2009-12-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

I am humbly shocked at the amount of stuff I receive from home. The guys here are probably getting a little jealous. They even say that I have more items then the local market!! LOL Well I do !!

I arrived back at my team site to find out that 4 gold bags have arrived. I didn’t realize how many boxes were inside! Thanks again to everyone! I think I have more stuff then I know what to do with. I almost had to move out of my cabin as there was no more room for me! LOL
I had to laugh at the sardines and pickled herring, there’s two things I will not be having LOL.
Dave had thought about muscle injuries (of which I have 3 injuries right now) and sent Myoflex…He did try to sneak through alcohol BUT Canada post found it LOL. Ummm yeh – DO NOT send anything that can melt….lol….like chocolate covered marshmallows and chocolate bars..LOL.

Just as a visual – in Khartoum when you want to find a chocolate bar you go to the fridge section of the grocery store.

Todd – great books, Christmas lights and Thanks for the gifts – I didn’t open them till the 25th!
Mom & Dad for the stocking stuffed with great gifts! Loved the pine incense as well.
Angela – Thanks for the soups I will let you know what I think LOL….Thanks for all the other items as well!

Holowatyj’s – Wow 2 boxes full of everything imaginable! The ordainments were well liked and used (see pics) and the other items including those for the children will be distributed. Thanks again for the school supplies they are always appreciated by the small villages. The rubber balls will be a hard sell…they don’t have to many walls and the ground is 99.9% sand everywhere we go…But I will find a use for them… and right now I am thinking the children’s ward at the hospital…I’m sure the staff will be happy with me LOL!!

I also received a Molson Canadian Banner…It was immediately put up on the NEW Canadian German Bar! I was also in competition with my German friends as I placed the Canadian Flag banner around the bar they quickly placed their German Flag banner on the other side… PS: My flags are bigger!

The stuffed animals were a nice touch, again I am thinking the Hospital can use them even if just for display.

I even received a Christmas package from the Canadian Forces (every soldier overseas gets one) which was jammed with various items. There were two shirts, duffle bag, 4 different razors, mugs, CD’s, DVD’s, pens, paper, books, magazines, soap and many other things! It was great!
And thanks for all of the other packages… I could go on forever but its late here…. However I must say I am wearing my new Canadian Hockey PJ’s…

With the lights and other items myself and my new German friend KAI began to decorate the bar area. I must say it looks good for a start. We will by paint this week and then put up a fence. It will all come together. I can still use more items… check out the old and new pics.

CIMIC Course

2009-12-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

14 – 17 Dec

Well as my job is the CIMIC (Civilian Military Cooperation) officer of my team site they thought it wise to send me on the new and improved CIMIC course in Khartoum. The only problem was they didn’t notify me of the course until I arrived at the sector HQ during my leave to Uganda. So I attended the course immediately upon return from Uganda without a military uniform. There were about 30 uniformed officers and myself and one other in civilian clothes. Some speakers could not figure out what our relation to the course was. They were worried that we represented some sort of Civil Authority there to monitor them.

The course was excellent. I was warned beforehand that most (insert ALL) of the participants were there (four days 8 hours a day) for only one reason…..They were being paid an extra $130.00 per day to be in Khartoum. I think I counted 4 people including myself, another Canadian, a Kiwi, and a Swedish officer who actually took notes during the course. Everyone else just sat there, some took phone calls and answered cell phones during the presenters lecture!! My partner, I had 2, was from Cambodia and has been on this mission for 12 months and asked for an extention (and got it) for another 6 months. During the 4 days I tried to interact and get him ivolved in the process and team work activities. In 4 days I got two sentences out of him, the first one was him asking what paperwork he needs to get his extra money!

Anyhoot, the course was good however it seems that they have very large ideas, plans and expectations which they are presenting to a very small, understaffed and overworked team site. We will have to see how it goes. I have a few ideas since the course to try and make some improvements to the Kurmuk area.

Now that the course is over I have 2 days off as the flight schedule did not match the course timings so it’s Friday and Saturday off!! YEH!!! I will endeavor to lounge around Canada house, go shopping and get my hair cut. I will also be buying some new food for Kurmuk to help me get through the next 4 weeks.

I am looking forward to getting to the team site I will have two new German and two new2 Australian camp mates!

Pics from UGANDA

2009-12-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

I am trying something different. A new way of sharing my photos. Lets see if it works.... The following are 177 photos from my Uganda trip.

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Untitled Album

Chimp Day

2009-12-13T08:54:00.000-08:00

I was pressed for time but decided to try to squeeze in the chimpanzee sanctuary in the few hours I had left. My flight was to leave at 1400hrs and the chimp visit would not finish until 1300hrs! Check in for my flight was at 1100hrs. It was going to be a risk and it was going to be tight. My guide took me to the airport at 830am to see if we could find someone from the UN as it is a UN flight that I am on. We could not. After a great deal of negotiating we convinced the head of security to hold onto and deliver a note to the UN staff when they arrived in the morning. The note basically said that I would be arriving late, I would be able to carry both of my bags on the aircraft and that I would be at the airport at 1315hrs. we then departed for the marina to meet the boat that takes the visitors to the chimp sanctuary.

We arrived at the marina a few minutes early. This is where I took the pics of the MARABOO STORK. It is a large UGLY bird. It has the same personality and diet as our seagulls. The only difference is that it stands as tall as my armpit. The 900am boat finally arrived at 915am. I was a little stressed. My guide spoke to the boat captain to inform him of my situation and the importance of my arrival back at the dock. Off we went for the 1 hour boat ride across Lake Victoria to Ngamba Island.

The ride was nice however the water had a film on it and there was garbage floating in it (just a few things). There was a storm brewing in the distance just above the island we were travelling to. I thought everything might work out well and then it happened….we lost a motor! Of the two motors one stopped. I started thinking that this will make me miss my flight. After about 10 minutes they managed to get it started again and we were off.

Upon arrival at the island we were greeted by the staff and were given tea and coffee. Then we received a 30 min briefing on the sanctuary, the reasons that the chimps were there and the program they were following for the eventual release into the wild. It was sad to hear of some of their stories. There are presently 40 chimps on the island. The island is large but it can only support 40 chimps as the chimps need a vast amount of room.

We made our way up to the observation deck so that we could see the feeding of the chimps. The chimps were also making their way to the feeding area as they always know exactly what time to show up. These chimps are all still very wild but have human characteristics. As we walk up to the area you start to hear the chimps and see them playing in the distance. They are kept back by a 10ft electric fence and we will be standing on a 8 ft wooden platform.

We get introduced to the chimps as they play around and wait for food. One young climbs the tree closest to us. They tell us that she is the lookout for the group and she will let them know when the workers with the food are coming out. When the food finally left the barn and made its way to the chimps the lookout yelled out and then there were a few minutes of complete mayhem! It got so LOUD, they all started running around and jumping off trees. It was….ummm WILD!

I have a video that captured the noise and the mayhem. We watched the chimps interact and eat and play for about 40 minutes. I kept looking at my watch as it was now 1140 and the boat takes an hour to get back to shore and I need to be on shore by 1300hrs. I was beginning to get anxious.

As the chimps figured out that there was no more food they departed back into the vast forest. We made our way back to the souvenir shop. I tried to be the lead and get the other people back to the boat. It began to rain. We all made our way back to the boat. I asked the capt if the motor was fixed, he laughed and said yes sir, no problem. Once on the boat I realized that there were still 4 people missing…. Stress level going up as it was now 1155am and the rain was now coming down pretty hard.

Finally the other 4 arrived at the boat and it was 1158am. I felt better and was telling the capt that we should get going soon. They fired up the first motor and I was happy. Then they fired up the second motor and it failed. It continued to fail for the next 4 minutes…stress level getting higher..

Finally it started and we were off. All dressed in yellow rain cost supplied by the boat crew. We left at 1204 – 4 minutes behind MY schedule. LOL. Half way across Lake Victoria the rain stopped and it became a nice ride. As we pulled into the harbor area there was a military person on a boat attached to the dock that was next to ours (about 200ft away). He was visibly angry and yelling at our boat capt.

The boat capt wasn’t sure what he was yelling about and the capt looked very worried and slightly confused. The military guy was signaling the boat capt to bring the boat over to him. Our capt didn’t want to do that and wasn’t sure what the problem was so he cautiously continued slowly to our dock while trying to hear what the military guy was yelling. As we got close to our dock the military guy picked up an AK-47 rifle and then made a call on his cell phone all the while yelling louder at our capt. The capt finally said to us something about pictures. I quickly asked if anyone on board had taken pictures of that area where there were several boats tied up. One woman said maybe it was the picture she took. She just thought the boats and dock looked pretty. She hadn’t realized that they were military and shore police boats and that in this country (and many others) it is illegal to take any photos of government, police, military or airport installations. I told her to quickly erase the photos she took and if asked just say you were viewing the storm and the hotels through your camera but took no pictures. She followed my advice quickly. When we finally docked it was 1305hrs and I was anxious to get to the airport quickly. I didn’t wait for the military guy to arrive. I was met by my guide and we ran to the truck and he drove rapidly to the airport. It was a 7 minute drive.

I arrived at the airport at 115pm (flight is departing at 200pm) to find many long lines. I decided to do like to locals do, show my pass get pushy and bud in front! It worked. When I got to the screening area the security guard said that that my flight was already gone! I asked him to show me someone from the UN. He helped me to find a UN Agent and sure enough the one he found was sitting with MY note in his hand that I have left with the security guard that morning! I was soooo Happy. He quickly got me registered, through security and up to the gate. My flight had not loaded yet and I even had a few minutes to grab a sandwich and a pop.

It all worked out and I was HAPPY!

My flight departed and the rest of the trip I slept on the aircraft….

Day 3 Uganda

2009-12-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

I was not really looking forward to another 11 hours on the road but the company of my driver/guide David made it worthwhile. We took a slightly different route back to the city. In Queen Elizabeth park we were both watching for wildlife. I was the first to spot the rarest animal in the park. I spotted the Tree Climbing Lion! This was one BIG cat hanging in a tree watching the area for its next meal. We stopped near it and took some pictures. It is said that they became tree climbing lions during the time when almost all of the residents and animals of the Queen Elizabeth Park were wiped out from a sickness, now known to be sleeping sickness caused by ticks. The lions would climb the trees to stay away from the ground where the ticks were. It was also a cooler breeze up high in the tree and this also prevented ticks and other bugs from harassing them. It was also easier to see their prey as the grasses around the area could grow to over 6 feet high. This would have made hunting for prey impossible.

So check out the photos of this awesome animal. We were not that close but were still able to get some shots of the lion on the branch. While taking the photos I looked down and then back up and the lion was gone… We could not see where it had gone so we decided to quickly get back in the car and make our way before we became breakfast! We passed by a herd of TOPI – a type of gazelle/buck.

A couple other cultural items…. The 7 of us that had done the Gorilla Trek (huffing and puffing) were all wearing good hiking shoes/boots. Most of them were well over $100. The guide and our security were all wearing $15 plain rubber boots!! LOL. This is also seen in all the villages. Most people are wearing flip flops (often the wrong size) or they have plain rubber boots. Another thing was when we traveled through the smaller villages and very rural communities there were often people standing on or walking down the road carrying and listening to simple transistor radios. This was their only method of communication, only electronic device and the only way to discover news.

I could not believe my eyes!! I had seen a couple vehicles go by as well as a city bus and I thought I was seeing things… There were people/street venders up ahead that were selling fresh fish from Lake Victoria. These are large pinkish fish. Here is the shocking part. Once they buy the fish either from a car, taxi or a city bus they still have to get it home. There is no paper to wrap it with so what do they do? You ready for this….. They tie the fish to the front grill of the car or the wiper blades of the bus!!! Then they drive a couple hours in the heat, dirt and diesel until they get home. It was the most bizarre thing I had seen. I wondered if maybe it also got a little cooked their on the hot grill LOL.

I took a pic of a guy riding a motor bike wearing a winter parka! It was 27 degrees at that time.
On the way home we stopped at the EQUATOR. This was cool as there was an experiment that you could participate in. They had three bowls of water with holes in the bottom. On was about 20ft north of the Equator. One was 20ft south of the Equator and one right in the middle of the equator. The test (which I have on video) is to see which way water spins when it’s drained on either side of the Equator. This was a great learning experience and it is confirmed that water spins clockwise north of the Equator, counter clockwise south of the Equator and it does NOT spin when you are centered on the Equator. Also during the winter and summer solstice while standing on the Equator you will NOT see your shadow. I hope I can post the videos.

There are 31 million people living in Uganda and 3.5 million in the city of Kampala.
I arrived back at my hotel and had a wonderful dinner. This time I was one of 4 guests at the hotel.

I have now had 3 beers during this trip, Nile Special, Bell and Crest all were made in Uganda and they were all good.

Nite

I Penetrated the Impenetrable!!

2009-12-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

I got up at 630 and was having a quick breakfast at 730. By 8 we were watching an introduction video on the Gorillas and their personalities and behaviors.

I was assigned one of three Gorilla families in the area. The Gorillas travel and live in a family structure. There are three families in this area. There are 3 others in another part of the forest, 4 in Rwanda and 3 that move across the border between Uganda and Rwanda on a regular basis. There are only 7 families that have been habituated to deal with people. The others are wild and one group is used for scientific study.

I was placed with the “H” family. There were three families in our area. The M, R and H. The R family was located closest to our camp and often they were seen in the immediate camp area. The visitors that were assigned to this group were older folks (over 50). I was assigned the H group which consisted of me and 6 others between the ages of 28 – 39 (me being the 39). H stands for the family name of the gorillas however I think it should stand for HARD. For the next 3 hours I climbed up and down 3 mountains trekking the H Family of gorillas. The climbs were often straight up in very thick, hot, wet rain forest jungle! It was absolutely HARD!! All of us were having a very hard time of it.

About 2 hours into the trek we came upon an area where the gorillas had been camping the night before. All of the trees and leaves in the area were flattened. When the gorillas leave the nest they use it as a bathroom first so that no one else can use it. Then they will travel around 1 km in search of new food and a place to live for the night. The gorillas spend most of their time eating vegetation. They do not get a great deal of exercise and they nap often. After about 3 hours we were told that we were close. We prepared our cameras and left our bags behind. The guide took us through some very thick jungle bush. He stopped us and began to hack at some trees and vines with his large knife. Through the bush and with the hacking we were able to finally see a hairy black shadow. As he hacked more leaves away a gorilla appeared! It was MASSIVE! And only about 10 feet from us. As the guide cut more trees and leaves we were able to get closer. The Black Back gorilla (male not yet a silverback) looked at us once. He stopped eating and lay down. At this point he played shy and covered his face, and then he began to pose for us and even rolled on his back and crossed his leg as a human would do. We spent 20 min with this guy.

We eventually moved on and were able to see and hear many trees breaking and falling down from the various gorillas in the area. This family was known to have 21 gorillas. We found another gorilla (black back) that was sitting and eating. None of these gorillas paid any attention to us. They would look at us once and then never look at us again.

Then the guide hit the jackpot! Just to the right of this guy the guide cleared an area and discovered a full family which included mom, 3 babies and the one and only SILVER BACK MOUNTIAN GORILLA!! The DAD.

The Silver Back was HUGE!!! Check out the pics. The kids were playful and entertaining. It was great to see them and from about 14 feet away. Our cameras never stopped.

We spent 40 min in the area and watched various gorillas that were around us (remember there are 21 all in this one location and presently we are in their den and we are surrounded). The gorillas are only habituated to humans by only allowing a maximum of 1 hour of human interaction per day. This is strictly enforced. The permit to see the Mountain Gorilla’s is $500.00. This goes towards conservation, the guide and the 2 armed guards, the vehicle and driver and the porters (if you want to hire one).

The trip was incredible as was seeing the Mountain gorillas in their natural habitat!
Some more info:

“Others were feeding here,” he said, pointing at a sapling stripped of its sweet green bark, “but our gorillas have gone up.”

When mountain gorillas have a choice, they always go up. For nearly five hours we had tracked this family of gorillas, cutting our path through the thick tangle of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, still known by its former and more picturesque name, the Impenetrable Forest.
Nestled among the steep, cultivated hillsides of southwest Uganda, Bwindi Park supports half of the world’s population of 600 endangered mountain gorillas in a remote pocket of lush rainforest. Two of the park’s 23 gorilla families have been habituated to accept daily visits by small tourist groups. Our party included gorilla trackers, a park guide, and six British and American tourists, doggedly pulling themselves up the rugged hillside.

Bwindi is now the most popular park for gorilla tourism. But that wasn’t always the case. American researcher Dian Fossey devoted over 15 years to the study and preservation of mountain gorillas in neighboring Rwanda. Her work, her book (then movie), Gorillas in the Mist, and her still unsolved murder brought international attention to the species.

Gorillas were a major tourist attraction for Rwanda until 1994, when civil war and massive tribal bloodletting left more than 500,000 people dead and millions displaced from their homes. Political instability there and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), made both countries unreliable travel destinations. The turmoil spilled over into Uganda in 1999, when a group of outcast Rwandan rebels attacked Bwindi Park, brutally murdering a warden and several tourists. Since that time heightened security has prevented further incidents and more and more tourists are choosing Ugandan parks for their gorilla tracking adventure.

To many people, Uganda brings to mind its own images of political unrest. Dictator Idi Amin led the country to ruin in the 1970s, committing unspeakable atrocities and acts of genocide against its people. Although less publicized, Uganda’s suffering continued under Amin’s eventual successor, Milton Obote, cementing Uganda’s reputation as a place hardly safe for its own people, let alone foreign tourists. But since Obote’s overthrow in 1985, Uganda has enjoyed nearly two decades of social and economic recovery.

“Bwindi is also home to a thriving gorilla ecotourism program, which generates much needed foreign revenue for Uganda annually by bringing paying travelers into the company of mountain gorillas. Four of the 30 family groups are habituated for tourism, or conditioned to tolerate the presence of humans for short durations.

The other mountain gorilla stronghold is located just south of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the Virunga Volcanoes on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The last census of the Virunga gorilla population in 2003 revealed 380 gorillas, up from 324 individuals counted in the previous census in 1989. In spite of incursions by farmers and rebels into the parks, and a few recent poaching events, Virungas' mountain gorillas are persisting as well, thanks to sustained conservation efforts by the guards and staff members within that landscape. The current total of mountain gorillas at both locations brings the worldwide tally to approximately 720 individual animals”.

During the trek we had seen many interesting things in the rain forest. We had come across earth worms that were about 1.5” in length and about 2cm thick! A fisherman’s dream! We had also seen a couple of snails. These snails were about 6” long with large shells. The guides were grossed out when we mentioned that we eat snails LOL….

We were also witness to a group of Red Tailed Monkeys traveling across the jungle canopy.
When we arrived back at the camp we were exhausted, dirty, wet and hungry. We were also proud of our accomplishment. I had travelled the trek with two Canadians one from Calgary and one from Edmonton who now lives in England. Both are bankers and are traveling all over Uganda. Met a Dutch couple who we were worried about as the guy, Charles, had a knee injury that cropped up during the extreme climbing we were doing. And I had met a great gal from the USA who was travelling with her boyfriend from Australia all over Africa. They had 11 days to get to Johannesburg to catch a flight home. They weren’t sure how they were going to make it was they were backpacking throughout the trip and were running short on funds. She is an accountant that decided to take time off and explore the world. Thanks to all of them that we all made it through the trek!

We had dinner and a few drinks as we shared stories about our adventure.
I headed off to bed, this time with no spiders!

Uganda Day 1

2009-12-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

I was up and on the road by 0730am. I was on my way to trek and see the Mountain Gorillas of Uganda. I had thought that it was about a 3 hour drive. Turns out I was WAY off. The drive took 11 hours!!!! We traveled along the main highway which consisted of broken asphalt, pot holes and no real speed limit. I have made a promise to myself that I will NEVER NEVER drive in Uganda!!! They have right hand drives and they have no real road laws. I thought we were going to die or at least kill a few pedestrians along the way.

The drive consisted of travelling through many villages and towns. I was amazed at the drivig skills of my guide. I must admit I was nervous a few times and that’s coming from a guy who has driven with many paramedics at full speed in downtown Toronto. I snapped a few photos along the way (see the blog with the photo album). I was shocked at what these people carried on bikes. The weirest one was a guy carrying 12 foot re-bar across the back seat of the bike. That caused his bike to be 12 feet wide. This country the pedistrians and the bikes share the shoulder while the cars and trucks (with no speed limit and very little asphault share the road. I have no idea how this guy didn’t clip a vehcle or a pedestrian during his ride.

After about 9.5 hours we entered the Queen Elizabeth National Park. We have to travel through this park in order to get to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park where the gorrillias live. We picked up two hitchhikers (Africa style) who had offered some information about a bridge being washed out in exchange for a short lift to the next outpost. One of the people was a park warden for the Queen Elizabeth National Park

As we dropped them off they had mentioned that about 20min up the road elephants were spotted about an hour ago. They had heard this from some other travelers. As we carried on our way we spotted 2 elephants in the distance. I took a couple of photos. Then I realized I was in Africa as we also spotted Monkeys on the road, then about 20 Baboons ( I took some picks and if you zoom on to the one where they are on the guard rail of the road you will find a mother baboon with her infant on her back and he is looking at the camera), a herd of River Buck (Basiclly a deer but all with antlers), another large group of Baboons, 3 more elephants that were very close to us, various birds with awesome colours and then one more group of about 10 elephants in the distance. All of this occurred within 1 hours of driving!

Uganda was ruled as a British Colony for years. This is still evident today as I arrived in Entebbe located on Lake Victoria, entered Queen Elizabeth National Park which hosts Lake Albert and Lake George.

As we travelled through several towns located in both national parks many kids came running out to wave and they kept yelling “MUZUNGU” which means White Man. It is used as a common term and not meant to be mean or racial. I noticed that one main difference between here and Sudan is that they try to use hard standing structures for their villages and even the Tukuls that they have are made of metal. I also noticed that the buildings their villages had were exactly like the ones you would find in old Mexico and even in outlaying Mexico villages…..Wonder how that happened…

We arrive at our destination which was called the BUHOMA COMMUNITY REST CAMP. I was quite interesting and cool. They used very little electricity and believed in preserving the environment. We had diner by oil lamp in the restaurant/Bar – see the pics. From there I was shown my tent/living area. It was quite cool. It was a large tent set up inside of a shelter. Out the back end of the tent was an open air bathroom with toilet, shower and table. All was good as I set up my things and prepared my clothes for the next day. Then I looked up…. It was then that I realized that I was not alone! I was sharing my tent with a jungle spider. This guy was about 3” long!!! MASSIVE!!! I had spotted it when I strapped on my head lamp and was looking around the tent. The spider’s eyes lit up from my light and were so large and bright. I looked around and realized that I was in the middle of nowhere with no help and it was just me and this spider and one of us had to go. Now the question was HOW to get rid of it. It was big enough that if I had knocked it to the floor and stepped on it there would be guts all over the place. So I finally used the wash basin I was provided and knocked it into it and then escorted it back to the jungle from which it came.

After that traumatizing moment I decided to head back up to the bar to meet some of the other travelers. I had met a few new friends including the bartender Aggrey. Aggrey is 25 years old and lives in the local community. He got married a year ago and now has a 1 month old son. He walks 30-40 minutes to work at the camp. He was so friendly and shared his 3 years of experiences with the gorillas and the local community with me. I had a NILE SPECIAL beer served in a 500ml bottle. This beer has been gaining momentum on the international beer market and has won several awards. It was a very good beer. So I enjoyed my beer and the conversation with Aggrey. I headed off to bed as I had an early morning of gorilla trekking planned.

I got back in my tent cleaned up and jumped into my bed and set up my mosquito netting all with the use of my head lamp. As I laid back and looked up two brightly glowing eyes caught my attention! There was another visitor and he was on the ceiling of the tent right above me. This one was the exact same type of spider as the last one just a little smaller. Well there was no way I could sleep with the knowledge that this guy was sitting above me. So up I got and escorted him out of MY tent. LOL

Night

The Pearl of Africa

2009-12-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

My Hotel in Kampala

Driving in Uganda, notice the bike in between the two trucks. this bike is a Taxi and the woman riding side saddle is the customer. Up to three people will ride the bike, no helmets and kids ride for free......

I will NEVER drive in Uganda!!!!

Uganda from the Air

Notice what looks like a soft green river? These are marshes that would have been massive rivers millions of years ago...

I woke up today at 0500 to be at the airport for 0540. It is winter in Khartoum and there is a cool breeze in the air. I almost had to wear a spring jacket!!

The UN flight was delayed by an hour and left at 1000am. I flew on a Spanish MD-87. The plane had 150 seats and there were 47 of us on board. As we left Khartoum I was finally able to see the Anti-Aircraft gun battery that was located right beside the runway. Things like that remind you of what the real situation is here in Sudan. The plane also came quite close to the Sudan gun ships and planes. We are starting to think about what the situation will be like within the next 4 months as the 1st national democratic elections arrive. Yesterday the South Sudan government political leaders and opposition leaders organized a peaceful demonstration in Khartoum. This is considered illegal and the political leaders were arrested and some were injured. This caused a massive demonstration in the south. If this is an indication of how are to be then things will get very interesting over the next months.

Once again as I look out the aircraft I see that there is always a fire somewhere in the Sudan desert. There are several reasons that have been mentioned to me. These include causing new growth, removing the bad animals and insects. The fires are caused by locals, by the sun and there is rumor that there is a type of rock out here that gets very hot in the desert sun and it can cause the start of a fire. No matter which reason it is there is never a week that goes by that you don’t smell the fires of Sudan.

I landed in JUBA, Sudan (another major team site) which has been called the new capital of South Sudan. We were dropping off and picking up passengers before heading out of Sudan to Entebbe Uganda. This is also the place that we get our passport stamped.

Within 10 min of leaving JUBA and heading towards Uganda (which shares the border with Sudan) it was amazing to see the line of green vegetation. I was like someone drew a line that was the border of Sudan and Uganda and north of this line they placed a country of sand and south of this line they placed a tropical country of lush green forests and farms.

I landed in ENTEBBE Uganda “the Pearl of Africa” was posted at the airport.

I was met at the airport by my driver and guide David. David is a father of 3 and lives in KAMPALA. As we drove to my first hotel I had heard sirens and a motorcade came speeding by us. It turns out this was the president of Uganda! I was pleased that David arranged for the president to meet me that day LOL!!

I arrived at my hotel which was an hours drive from the airport. I had landed in Entebbe and would be staying in Kampala. The hotel was nice and my room was basic. The ratio of staff to guests was 14:1…Oh did I mention that I was the ONLY guest!!! Well at least I had great service. My room had a TV and satellite cable which had only one channel. Oh I could change the channel. All I had to do was to go to the reception desk and ask for a new channel. I had my first Ugandan beer that night called BELL beer. It was quite good and came in a 500ml bottle.

That night I set up my mosquito net and went to sleep.

Uganda here I come

2009-12-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

A Village from the Air....

The meeting of the Blue and White NILE which is in the middle of Khartoum. This is where I live. The name Khartoum is derived from a meaning of the Elephant trunk which is what people used to think this part of Khartoum looks like.

An interesting compond in the middle of no where.

Look at the contrast between the green areas and the sand

An example of a river in dry season, this river is completly dry!

I am about to start my first leave (holidays) of which I get three while I am in Sudan. As I wait at the Damazin Airport for my plane I meet a woman who is a senior member of the DDR (Demobilization, disarmament and reintegration) team. This program involves having the two military sides of the conflict identify those members of its army that are available for returning to civilian life. Most of these members include older members, injured members, female members and others that are no longer seen by the armies as main battle members. The process is lengthy as each member must be registered, finger printed, educated, enrolled in various programs, given food and money and provided other support services as part of the program. They can process approximately 60 people a day and on average they have about 5,000 people to process per site. I do not have any of these sites in my area so I will not get the chance to participate in this type of activity.

While in Damazin I met the two new German UNMO and the two new AUZ UNPOL who will all be located at my team site and living in the camp with me.

Here’s an interesting thing about some of the cultures I deal with. When we have our picnic with the PAK army we all sit down for lunch (see previous blogs) and they provide fresh clean water and one or two cups. It is their custom that you share the cup with everyone. While I was sitting at the Damazin airport awaiting my flight I noticed a water container (like you would have at the workplace or home with the big jugs of water you tip upside down and place on top) and a glass. Several people came by and filled the glass with water and drank from it and then placed it back on the stand. Then the next person came along and did the same thing. This is something that we would have used/provided paper cups for. I was rather disgusted… Can you imagine sharing a common glass for water at Pearson Airport?

I flew in a twin prop Bulgarian Landin L-410 UVP-E20 (for all my air force friends) to Khartoum.

It was once again amazing to view the Sudan landscape as we flew along the Nile River. There are sparse areas where the land is green and lush with vegetation, especially near Khartoum. There were several large areas of water irrigation and proper farms of vegetables. The amazing part was that these existed right beside vast areas of desert sand and brown ground.

That night (8 Dec) we decorated Canada house for Christmas. We had some wine, set up the Christmas tree and had a Christmas movie playing in the background. We even had some presents placed under the tree.

The next day I left for my trip to Uganda!!

WARNING!!

2009-12-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

Ok folks, I got "spoken to" today. Please DO NOT send things in bottles that look like ALCOHOL bottles!! Especially if it IS alcohol!!! Due to the operation in Afghanistan Canada Post scans/x-rays all care packages looking for contraband. It is ILLEGAL to send alcohol by mail as it is considered (ready for this...) an explosive!

I had a package opened by Canada post within the last couple days, they found alcohol (including mini bottles) (psst I would of liked that! LOL) and they confiscated all of it. They also file a report to my HQ and my HQ notifies my boss here and I get spoken too. The best part is they know that we can not control what others send...so I really can't get in trouble.

Remember they will open any package that has something that looks like alcohol in it. SO be careful... You can get in trouble if Canada post decides to follow up on it.

And remember, I do have beer and some wine at my village.

Thanks again!

Mike

DVD's

2009-12-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

If anyone has DVD's (good ones / newer ones) that they no longer want please send them to Canada House as we have a collection here that we share and sign out amongst all of the Canadian UNMO's and permanent staff.

The videos are a great morale boost as the team members can grab about 20 and take it to their team site and then exchange it next time that they are back at Canada House in Khartoum.

To mail them send them to:

Canada House / NSE Staff
OP SAFARI/OP SATURN
PO Box 5225 STN Forces
Belleville, ON K8N 5W6

Leave a note inside saying " For Canada House"

Heads up

2009-12-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

If you are sending me stuff through the mail please be careful NOT to mark anything as (or recognized as) a charity item, ensure all listed items are for my personal use....

Sports Items - Is fine

Sports balls for school kids - is NOT fine

We can not overload the military system with charitable items. Still send stuff if you are, just be cautious about the label...

Thanks again!

I am presently in DAMAZIN awaiting my flight to KHARTOUM and back to Canada House. I have also found out that I will be attending a course in Khartoum as soon as I arrive back from my Vacation to Uganda. This is a CIMIC course for three days.

It means 3 extra days away from Kurmuk and living at Canada House. It also turns out that I actually get paid extra to take the course... Hmmm In Canada we just get assigned to the course there is never any "bonus" for being there...

I am looking forward to the course as I am trying to increase and re-develop the cooperation between the military and the NGO's in the Kurmuk region. I have already increased the info sharing and it is proving to be somewhat beneficial to the villages as their problem and concerns are now being passed directly to the organization that can help. Those organizations are becoming very thankful for us because we are becoming their eyes and ears for villages that are way to far for the NGO to drive to just to see if there are any problems.

Essentially the NGO would have to visit a bunch of villages then return to their HQ. They would have to make a plan, get supplies and then go back to the villages. Now they can receive a basic report from us and then gather the supplies and head directly to the village and assist with their needs.

I do hope it establishes a better and more effective working and sharing relationship for the future.

I have blisters on my hands today. Yesterday I started to plant a garden at the team site. With the assistance of some of our workers I was able to design an area, break up the ground and remove some large rocks. The workers are very interested. They appreciated the seeds that came from Canada (thanks mom!) We will have Lettuce, Peas, Beans, Corn, Carrots and herbs. So there is another item if you want to send stuff... I will give any extra seeds directly to the workers inside the camp so they can use at their houses (Tukuls).

I will most likely NOT have Internet access in Uganda so I will not be reporting anything until I return which is on 13 Dec 09. I will be located in Khartoum for the CIMIC course which means that I will have great Internet so I can post the pictures that I will take while in Uganda.

Once again, thanks for reading my post!

Final update as I prep for Uganda

2009-12-05T02:22:00.002-08:00

I'm showing off my new gifts from Rob and Reagan.

A Christmas card I received from Michelle - an unknown Canadian Girl.....

Me and my Wheels!

Taking notes and grid ref at a local voter registration centre. We are monitoring the security and safety of the registration process.

Once again, my pet chicken. I also have video of her... she gets chatty when I feed her.

Thank You Day

2009-12-03T04:19:00.001-08:00

Thank you day

Well today here was like Christmas but early. So I was happy to have my two gold bags arrive today and I was rather surprised to see what I had inside.

I was humbled to find that I was a recipient of the Canadian Forces Christmas Card program. I received in my bag 7 Christmas cards addressed to: “Any Canadian Forces Member – OP Safari”.

The cards were from various Canadians who wanted to share their appreciation for the Canadian Forces personnel who were serving THEIR country overseas and would not be with their own families for Christmas. Let me share with you:

Neil and Adel Volk from BC – Hand wrote a special holiday letter from Campbell River explaining how they celebrate Christmas, what their plans are for this year and the fact that they always think of Canadians that are not going to be home this season. They also asked if they could borrow my cook to help with their dinner as Adel is dreading cooking for her whole family once again…LOL They often go to the various neighbors houses and sing Christmas carols, although out of tune LOL

A letter from Clair from, I assume Calgary, who’s 22 y/o son was the one that tol here about all the CF members overseas and she felt so enriched that the young generation of Canadians back our forces that she should too. She had moved to Canada as a child and now she says she is so proud to sing our National Anthem. She speaks of a recent hockey game with the Flames and during the opening ceremonies they put a video up showing all the Canadians overseas. She says even the players were taken back by it all. Then the national anthem played and she said it was the loudest she has ever heard it in the arena. Thanks Clair from Calgary… and I agree GO FLAMES!!!

A letter and card from Sarah Heather of Brooks Alberta. A great Christmas card and wonderful wishes. I am assuming that Sarah is in University. She writes how she worked for an NGO (Non-Government Organization) in South Sudan in a town that I haven’t heard of but will be looking up. She tells of how she lived in a Tukul with no electricity and no water. She tells of how an 8 y/o boy adopted her and became her security guard. She taught him English as he “protected” her. She is presently with Beta Sigma Phi. Thanks Sarah.

Richard Dyalsingh from Toronto passed on his best wishes and also included a religious proverb on a small pocket card. Thanks Richard.

Esther Franklin from Cornwall Ontario sent a Christmas card and some religious writings and blessings to help a soldier get through the holidays without their family. Thanks Esther.

The next two made me feel…… well ya. I received a Yellow Christmas card from someone that I figure is about 4-6 year old. Inside it says “Hope, Peace, Wonder, Joy” written on yellow construction paper with green crayon. No name was left L… But It will be posted in my office tomorrow.

The second was a green construction paper card. This is a snowman card from Michelle who I figure is about 6-7 years old. Thanks Michelle!!

Neither one had a return address nor and envelope. I wish they did. For all of the other cards most had an email address or a mailing address so I will respond to all of them. I think it’s my duty to let these kind people know that their card made it to the troops and that it was appreciated!

I also need to thank some others……

Rob Johnstone and his 4 y/o daughter Reagan. Thanks Rob for the great food, the magazines and the shirt. I have posted a pic of it. Reagan wanted to help her dad prepare a package for me so Rob took it upon himself to educate her on Africa and what I am doing here. One of her family members is in the army and is going back to Afghanistan for the 4th time (Best Wishes!) and the kids only know that Canadians go to fight because of that. So Rob educated Reagan on what we as Canadians are best known for “PEACEKEEPING”. Reagan learned so much from Rob that she included in the package her toy “little pony”…. I was shocked… how many 4 y/o’s would give up a toy for another child overseas. She wants me to give it to a little girl here…so now I have a project, as I will not simply just give it to anyone! J LOL Reagan also knows that the people in Africa are very hungry..LOL (Inside story) Yes Rob I LAUGHED and Cried!!!!

Just a quick story about Rob and Reagan. They were visiting the armouries the other day and Reagan had just learned about Remembrance day at school. While at the armouries this little 4 year old caught the attention of a few of the forces personnel and began to sing (all by herself) the entire National Anthem!!! Way to go Rob!!! Reagan also sent me a beautiful card with pictures, a real maple leaf and writing. It’s now up on my wall.

My Aunt Marg and Uncle Paul – Thanks for the gift box and the going away card. The card, combined with the Weiss’ bought me the accessories to the new IPod that I was given from my friends in the military. The pencil crayons will be given out on my next patrol to the school teacher. I am sure they will be appreciated. The Christmas meal items will come in handy! Who says you can’t have Turkey, Ham, Potatoes, veggies and stuffing in the middle of Africa!!! I can’t wait.

The Weiss’, again thanks for the great card and gift. I used it to buy the accessories for my IPod. It comes in very handy!

To the folks from 166, 110 and 25 fd. Thanks again for the going away party and of course the IPod! Jeff it has come in so handy. I now have my tunes playing while I am trekking across the African safari looking for the next village that I am visiting. It helps the time go by and it’s nice to hear my music from home.

My friends from the dt area, Byzanthium night was great...from what I remember! LOL

To my office mates form Toronto EMS – I did as I said and I have the talking card on my bed stand. When I need a good laugh and a smile I just open it up. Thanks again!!

Sharon, Thanks again for the little note book. I never thought I would use it however from the point of my first flight being delayed until I reached my team site I used it to track my memories and thoughts. It was a great diary that fit perfectly in my pocket and made updating the blog a great deal easier.

Angela, it’s been too warm, ok I mean its friggen HOT!! To wear the shirt you got for me, however it will be packed for my trip to Europe! Thanks again!

Todd, many many thanks for the two books on Sudan and Darfur and the card. The books were all I had to pass the time away. They were a great stress relief as no matter how bad my day was or how delayed I was Nothing (I mean NOTHING) could compare to what those boys of Sudan could have gone through. Every day when I am on patrol the stories from that book go through my mind. Thanks for giving me more of an appreciation for this country and the HELL that they have gone through. And thanks for being there when I need to hear a familiar voice back home.

Rich Lim, Thanks again from me and ALL of my team site for the 250GB of movies you loaded for me. I have only watched about 1/5 so far. Thanks again! It helps pass the time.
Thomas Nguyen I can thank enough for all of the advice (as he just returned from Sudan) and for all of the accessories that he had left me. If it wasn’t for him I would have either starved or spent a great deal of money. Thanks again…see you soon Sir.

Today I visited another village that once again has nothing. But somehow they survive. To get water they walk over one hour to a river where there is a hand pump. And then it’s an hour back to the village with the weight of the water. To get medical service or to shop at a market it’s an hour and a half walk. The kids walk an hour and 15 min to get to school. The kids here didn’t have much and they were polite and curious. I asked the village elder if the children of the village could use a soccer (football) ball. My language assistant looked at me like I was making a joke. I asked him to translate and said maybe I have one that can be shared by all of the kids. The smiles were priceless. I go to my vehicle and had my partner inflate a soccer ball for the village. The kids loved it. I had seen one older child asking my other partner for his pen.

There is such a desire for education here. They have no pens or books. I was happy to also give the village elder a handful of the golf pencils that I bought at Staples.

It is amazing that the little things that we take for granted can mean so much to others that are in need. The soccer balls are the greatest hit and I picked them up at Zellers for $4.50 each. I deflated them and shipped a box of 7 to myself. The PAK Army Capt was amazed and thought I had received them from our HQ in Khartoum. When I told him that it was a gift from Canada and that it was the least I could do for a village he was shocked and shook my hand.

I cannot forget my Mom and Dad. If it wasn’t for them I would be starving here and have nothing at all. Their packages are great and it’s always like Christmas when they arrive. My workmates laugh at me, they know if the gold bags arrive Mike will disappear for about an hour or two. But they are also happy because I normally bring treats into the office the next day. I can’t thank them enough! Even the imple phone calls home are always great. Can’t wait to see my Mother in Europe…our first vacation together in YEARSSSSS!!!!!

I'm off to bed..... Night all....

Stuff

2009-12-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

In with all my parcels I also received

The Cape Breton Post news paper
The Ottawa Citizen News paper
Toronto Life
Rolling Stone Mag
SCUBA Diving Mag
World of Wheels
McClains Mag
Hockey News
Muscle Mag

Thanks to the CF and Rob J!

If you are sending me things and want to include something for the childern that I see everyday here are some ideas:
Small pencils (Stables)
Small Paper pads
Soccer Balls - deflated (Zellers $4)
Hard Candy individually wrapped
Canada Frizbie - (Dollar store)
Kids Bubbles (put in a zip lock)

I will include Pics tomorrow... Internet is extremely slow today...

Mike

The Monitoring and Verification

2009-11-29T23:56:00.000-08:00

I received permission to show these...

This is the Monitoring and Verification (M&V) that we do. We line the troops up. Get them in order of the names on the roll call...

They each have an ID card, we verify who they are, confirm their number and confirm the spelling of their name

At times we also verify their weapons, tanks and ammo.... not today...

Local women.... Everything is carried on the head, this is learned from an early age

SAMA

2009-11-29T23:16:00.000-08:00

The Village of SAMA

More Tukuls

This is our PAK Picnic! Love it, Spicy Chicken

My friend LCOL Freddy LOZA from Bolivia

The main mode of transport for the locals

I wasn't quite sure if they were teasing me when they said follow this road and be sure to turn right at the TANKS! I guess it was true... any guesses on the type of tank? It's most likely Russian - I'm thinking T-55, T-72

The great people of SAMA

The first Soccer ball I have given out... great for the kids...

2009-11-29T03:45:00.000-08:00

An insite to UNMO work;

The area is very hot and dry. There is a constant wind. I have arrived in winter which is also the dry season. I have been here 5 weeks and have never seen a drop of rain. The village/town that I am located is very small and does not have much to offer. Most villages / towns are judged in size by their market and availability of items. The market here has some onions, small tomatoes, potatoes, pasta and bread. You can also by 500ml coke/Pepsi, some interesting juices, bottled water and buns. That is all. Not much more.

I have food shipped in from home and I place orders for frozen chicken and eggs from the sector headquarters – it comes in by chopper 3 times a week.

I have been assigned two positions here (most are assigned one). I was warned many times prior to coming here that English speaking and Europeans are the hardest workers and are often given other peoples extra work that they do not want to do. Things are definitely not equal here. The work ethics of some of the countries are quite interesting. Even when they have a job or task to do it will be done at a pace that is unbelievable.

So presently (because of vacations) I am the G2 – Intelligence Officer and the G5 – Civil-Military Cooperation Officer. On top of these jobs I still go out on Patrol as either a member or a patrol leader. The G2 job incorporates analyzing data, patrol reports, media reports and making assessments and recommendations. I also look at the upcoming weeks patrols (we get assigned 7 days of patrols every Friday) and analyze the security situation of the patrol area, the mine fields and the village itself.

The G5 job is very interesting. I work as the go-between military and civilian groups including the multiple NGO (Non-government organizations) and civil authorities. Once again I analyze the patrol reports and share information, plan group or team activities and recommend to higher which villages we should visit again.

Our two main focuses right now have been the Monitoring and Verification of armed groups (M&V) and Election Assistance. The M&V is done in cooperation with both armies of which we sit right in between. We verify the number of troops, weapons (small arms and tanks) and ammunition. Our second focus is assisting the Electoral Assistance. This country preparing to hold its first democratic election in over 25 years. There has already been censes which was contested by South Sudan. Now we are preparing for the national, regional and local level elections which are to take place in April 2010.

This election is an incredible task that has the assistance of over 60 countries. You can imagine the task of getting information out to people who live in villages with out hydro, roads and with people that can’t read or write. The population has been trying to register over the past month and it has been a difficult task. The next task will be actually running the first democratic election and being able to run it in such a way to prevent anyone from contesting it. This will rove to be an incredible feat. I am not sure what our/my role will be in that. Presently we will conduct a patrol to a village and gain info on how the registration went and whether there were any problems.

Once this election is over the country must hold a referendum with in 12 months as part of the UN agreement. This referendum will have the people of Sudan decided if they want to separate North Sudan from South Sudan or have one unified Sudan. The separation would most likely be across the 1-1-56 line. Even this line, which was created by the British in 1955 is contested and has not been mapped out.

Presently the village that I am in is controlled by the South Sudan Army – The Sudan People’s Liberation Army which according to the UN Comprehensive Peace Agreement is supposed to have ALL of its troops south of the 1-1-56 line. I am presently in the Blue Nile State which is above the 1-1-56 line. This state along with 3 others are contested land and both armies want it.

So other then that I perform about 3-5 patrols per week. These patrols consist of visiting a village or an army camp to gather information, solve problems or pass on information. The patrols consist of short range (<50kms),>100kms – two days) or Air Patrol. We have an armed escort for all of these patrols as I am an unarmed peacekeeper.

On days when I am not on patrol I am in the office checking emails, preparing briefs and preparing for the next patrol.

Days here start at 0810am, we hve lunch at 1:30, a briefing at 2:30 then its your time until final radio check at 6:00pm at which time you are 100% on your own time. Fridays are the only day where we have no offical patrol other then 50min in our own village. Fridays we do training and car maint.

Just an insite.......

Patrol Leader

2009-11-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

Patrol Leader

Today we were heading to a village called NAXILA which was by GPS straight line 49 kms from our camp. I was offered two ways to get there as I was the Patrol Leader. The one direction was a much longer road route but had better roads and the second was a straight line route that had worse but usable roads. Oh forgot to mention the straight light route was mined. So I consulted 2 of my colleagues and they both agreed that the straight route would be the best and that it had been cleared of mines.

The PAK army suggested the other route as being a much better and faster route. So I followed my colleagues advice (they had been here over 10 months) and chose the most direct route. Within 20min of leaving town we came into a mined area!! We were safe; the local Mine removal company (Rotal?) was busy working in the area. There were hundreds of rocks painted half white and half red. As long as you were on the white side you were ok! We were! It was really surreal to see. I read yesterday that they will clear an average of 11m2 in 6 hours. They only work from 0630am (first light) until 1200noon as it gets way too hot wearing a fully explosion proof suit and poking at the ground waiting for a BANG! There is a job you could NOT pay me enough to do. I will try to get some picks of this area over the next couple days.

As we carried on I couldn’t help to look out the window and every once in a while notice a hidden marker to show where an unsafe area was located. When we stopped for a pee break we didn’t step off the road, not even an inch!!
The drive was definitely long and difficult. One man we passed said no vehicles had been on this road since last season. This was a lie because one of our patrols got lost here 2 weeks ago LOL. Around 1330pm we finally reached our village. Ummm did ya catch the math? 54 kms = 4 hours. What a trip!

The village was small. I was the team leader so that meant that I would conduct the interview and make a report at the end. I combined two interviews I performed a village profile and an electoral process questionnaire. Because we were so late getting to the village we had already decided that the interview had to be quick so that we could have our picnic and get back to base by 1800hrs (UN SOP’s). My interview lasted 13min and all of my questions were quickly and accurately answered. My language assistant appreciated the fact that he didn’t have to figure out what I was asking before he translated it which is something he has to do with most of my workmates as English is neither their strong point nor their native tongue.
Speaking of which 3 of my teams mates had never spoken English until 6 months ago when they attended the Military English Training School at CFB BORDEN, Ontario!!! They loved it there. Except most of the Africans were a little shocked when they arrive there in Dec and had to live 4 months in the SNOW!!!!
So with the interview done we headed home but on the other route. We stopped quickly for our picnic lunch (again curried chicken) and prayer (several Muslims) and then headed off. Before we could leave several children approached us. They were from the nomad tribe FIGULI. I managed to take a few pictures. Note their wearing traditional outfits, all but one. They wear this as their daily dress. They looked so pretty. Some had many bracelets of metal. We gave them some of our leftover food as we left.
The route home was faster, safer and we could get the car up to 50kms at times. I took some pictures of some of the mountains. Notice they are made of boulders. The weird part is some of these boulders are perched on top of other boulders on the top of the hill. It was awesome to see.

A long day and I am tired. Have a good night.

More info

2009-11-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

Mom, Don't look at this one....

Can you find my state? BTW NO UN people have ever been hurt by land mines!!

NAZILA village these are the standard Tukul.

This is the local school in MAYAK....

2009-11-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

Our standard PAK Army Picnic....

It was amazing to see some of the mountians and how they were formed by boulders and how some of these boulders exist on the top of the mountian and seem as if they have been perched there and are balanced.

The cheif of NAZILA (in white)

Women do most of (if not all of) the hard labour in Sudan. They also are trained from a very young age to balance things on their head.

These girls approached us while we were having lunch. They are from a nomad tribe call the FULANI tribe. I found it interesting thet they were dressed in a traditional outfit (all but one). They wear this as their regular clothes.

We gave them some food and sweets... BTW I am running out of sweets (I only had one bag of Worthers Originals)......

Pics

2009-11-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

This is our camp pet chicken. She has produced eggs in the past. Every once in a while we get worried because we wont see her for 2-3 days. With all of the wild animals around here we think she may have been eaten, then she re-appears a day or two later. Yes Todd she is real.

If a patrol runs over the lunch hour (most do) the PAK Army that is with us insists that we stop and take a break. So we find shade and the army spreads out a large tarp, we all wash our hands and then we sit in a row cross legged and have a PICNIC!!!! It's always curried chicken and flat bread an some apples. It's GREAT! and SPICY!

What an awesome tree we found......

Pics

2009-11-24T08:17:00.001-08:00

These piles of rocks and gravel were gathered by the local population of Khor HASSAN to build a school with. An NGO told them that they would be back to provide cement and assistance. So the village cleared a huge area and collected ll the materials....... no NGO ever came back... I am looking into this one...

All roads here support ONE vehicle (no room to pass), however on these roads are bikes, trucks, motorcycles, people, goats, cows and donkeys. UN Cars have the right of way most of the time. This traffic jam was us verses goats!

This is a good bye pic at our team site. In it is UNMO's and UNPOL (UN Police). Can you name all of the uniformed countries here? The guys in civilian clothes are leaving for holidays right after this pic. Most of these guys (other then me) live in one house in town.

The final parade for our friend a Major in the Russian Navy, guy on the left.

Many, many lizzards and gecko's here

More pics finally!!!

2009-11-24T08:01:00.001-08:00

My Helicopter, The Roads and some Mayak kids

The pic above was taken at Mayak on my first patrol. Great people with a nice sense of hospitality. The pic below is a STICK Praying Mantus... It was so small I almost stepped on it.

Patrol Day

2009-11-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

Well I woke in the morning to diarhhea and a grass fire. The grass fire was moving quickly and was approaching our camp. There were high winds and it built up the fire. We have a large trench around our site so the fire never hit us. Some of the team reminded me that because of the fire we now have to be more careful for things like snakes and other criters. They may have moved into the camp to avoid the fire.

Well it was my first real patrol. We were heading to the village of Mayak. It was located about 50kms from our team site. The drive was interesting...We had to cross all types of terrain..remember there is not one single paved road within 100 kms of here. I took some good video of the trip.

We went down ravines and over rocks and boulders, crossed rivers and what used to be rivers.

I learned a great deal on the way to Mayak as I was with two Africans. For instance... most animals will follow or stay near Giraffes as they can see furthest for noting danger and for finding water. Also Hyinas are best friends to lions as the lions will kill the food and the hyinas get the left overs. So if you see hyinas then expect lions.

I also found out that there is a lion in the mountian near our village. The locals hear it and see left overs.

We finally arrived at the village. The village Sheik was not available so we met with three of the elders. We had a good talk about the village, problems, needs ect. At the end one of my colleagues gave the elder, who was also a teacher, some blank books for the kids to write in. I gave a handful of pencils and for the three kids that were with us I gave some candies.

We will take our info and pass it on to the appropriate agency. For instance one of their roads has mines and bombs on it so we will notify the agency that specializes in removing them.

By the time we got back to the camp I really wasn't feeling well. Figured maybe too much sun. By 6pm I had a fever of 108f / 39.6 c.... I was dizzy and had constant runs...

I went to the medical clinic at the PAK Army. They assessed me and quickly had me strip down for a cooling sponge bath... The manuals say use tempid water (not too cold) these guys used water from the fridge with ise in it!! Man it was COLD!! Slowly my temp came down and felt a bit better. The Dr had seen me and prescribed meds and a malaria test...It was negative.

I went back to camp around 900pm. I was missing our party. It was a good bye party for three of our guys and a welcome party for me and my friend from Boliva. I went to bed...around 2 am I woke up and was soaking wet, fever was back up. I took some more meds and tried to sleep.

The next day I was feeling somewhat better..no fever but the bowels still not good.

I have a day off to recover... Hope I feel better by Sat.

Mike.... Pics to follow.

Weekend update

2009-11-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

Well it has been an interesting experience here. The team site is very remote. There is plenty of wild life around here. Packs of wild dogs, wild pigs, goats, gecko and chickens.

I was given two bars of soap and a can of air freshener upon my arrival...The air freshener was "Tobacco" scent...LOL

The hill right in front of our camp was on fire the other night. It was eerie watching it burn across throughout the night. Ashes would fall on the camp site. There is two thoughts...One is that the locals burn it to scare away and kill all of the snakes and other nastiness. The second is that it signifies the local harvest time.

I went on my first patrol yesterday. It was to a JIU (Joint Integration Unit). A concept whereas you put equal amounts of each faction together and build a unified team so that when peace is final they will then become the standing army of the new nation. Yeh... it does not work! Both parties live "near" each other, and they often fight between each other.

We went to do a verification of one of the factions... the commander was..umm.. drunk..(it was 0900am!) he played a political game of denial... the end result we never accomplished our mission... so Patrol over.

What to do.... I was warned about the free time you have here... So My next patrol is next Sunday, until then I have NOTHING to do. Just show up to work at 0800h, shake hands with everyone (everyday), steal a computer... Lunch at 1300h, meeting at 230pm... radio check at 600pm... done..

I have decided to become a member of the G5 branch - CIMIC - Civilian and Military Cooperation. This, I feel, will give me a greater opportunity to see the local communities and villages from a non-military view. It will also mean that I work more closely with the local NGO (Non-Government Organizations) Charity groups.

So it's Sunday, one of our patrols was cancelled and the other one has departed. I will now try to occupy the next 8 hours... The worse part - can't work out or really disappear during that time... hmmmm

The Party

2009-11-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

Russian, and UNPOL

Russian, Tanzania, Romania

Faye, one of the only women, however she lives in a Tukul in the GOAL NGO team site about 4 min drive away..She is from Ireland

A feast was put on by the UNPOL (UN Police) for two of their guys are End of Mission and heading home and they had two new arrivals. The feast was two lambs freshly killed and cooked.. They were cooking 4 different ways... One was quite spicy but still great! I was happy as I wasn't sure what I was going to have for dinner..

My Team mates (Romainian, Philipines, Indonesia, Bolivia)

New friends. Freddy on the left arrived here with me.. Great guy

Ethiopian Beer...mmmmmmmmmmm

The Camp

2009-11-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

Kewl mountian in the background

The front of our camp. I was standing here last night using my Sat phone and wasn't paying attention when a group of wild dogs snuck up on me and scared me... LOL

My neighbours leaving the camp. They are very skitich (sp?)..Oh yeh I thing I ate two of them later that night...

Shower and bathrooms...

Great security.. Open fence (where the goats and dogs came from) good news is that is the PAK Army (our support force) in the background.

More pictures!!

2009-11-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

I am in luck I found a faster computer!

Little "Bird on a Wire"

Big bird hunting, not sure what it is but very close to a Hawk or Eagle

Lots of these guys around... some have wicked colours... neon blue tails..

A fighting point for defence... never been used...

My offices... This is where we spend about 90% of our time.. I'm located in the second door from the left.. G5 - CIMIC

Our world famous trucks

OK - I need help... This is our "patio" I want to make it more friendly and I will leave it for the next tours.. If you can think of something to send please do. We do have hydro that can run to the structure. I am thinking Patio Laterns, Rope lights, Disco Ball, Speakers, Wind chimes... Please feel free to send something that you think can help make this a social place for all of the UN staff here.

Had to put a flag on my door... I kept getting confused as all the doors look the same. This flag also makes it easier for my workmates to find me.

So, I look out my door and I had new neighbours! And dinner..LOL

Updates - My Home

2009-11-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

My food locker... It's some of the basics. I am still waiting for 6 more gold bags to arrive....I hope today!

Locker

Yeh its not much... we have a kitchen as well but for small quick meals I use this set up for simle soups, tea ect

My Beer ...Ummm I mean food fridge.. front (or only) door...

Desk and AC Unit... Can use a quick trip to Ikea

My bed is not bad, Pillow sucks going to try to get another one..

Picture of the mountians from the chopper on the way to Kurmuk

Going for a chopper ride!!

Kurmuk

2009-11-11T23:39:00.000-08:00

After a 50min chopper from Damezin I have finally arrived to my new home in Kurmuk. It is a very rustic place. Our camp is located just outside the town (4 min drive) to the south. Think of the old MASH series, small isolated camp surrounded by mountains and covered in dirt. That’s where I am.

I have set up my new cabin. I am hoping that my gear and gold bags will arrive today. They could not fit them on the chopper yesterday as both flights were full with passengers. Once my stuff arrives I will be much happier.

Last nights dinner and this morning’s breakfast consisted of peanut butter and a bun. The local markets do not have a great deal of anything. I have paid into the lunch menu here...the others pay for Breakfast/lunch and dinner however they all live in the town in one house. It sounds great 2-6 people per room, no drinkable water, hydro off a generator for 3 hours only and NO A/C!! BUT they are saving a great deal of money and their countries do not pay them well at all so they save as much as possible so that they will be rich when they go home.

There are only a few people that actually live in the camp where I live. None of my workmates (UNMO) live here. I am the only "European" and native English speaker here.

They have a very small gym and some of the equipment works. There is a 10km run from the camp to the airport and back. I think I will be starting to run that every day of two... Most here are saying that they have lost over 10 kg's. One guy lost 22kgs in weight.

The weather is nicer. It's a little cooler especially at night. Internet in the office is extremely slow. The wireless system I bought is also very slow.

The army SPLA walks past our camp every day as they move from the town to their training camp. Some have bicycles. It's awkward watching a guy in a uniform with flip flops riding a bike with an AK-47 strapped to his back.

We have a pet chicken on camp...Hmmmm so far... LOL Here little chicken...

There are a great deal more bugs and birds then the other location that I have been too.

The work pace has increased here as they are assisting with the preparation for the election in Apr 2010. This will be one of the main focuses in the next 6 months.

Today and tomorrow I am being briefed on each of the camp positions and the various jobs within the UNMO's.

Awesome Experience

2009-11-10T10:39:00.000-08:00

Well I was a little board this afternoon and I wanted to see the local market so I would know what they have in case I needed to order some food to be shipped to me. I hooked up with Canadian UNPOL (UN Police) David f4om the OPP Orillia branch.

We grabbed a truck and headed along what some folks call a road...into town.

David has been here for 8 months and knows his way around. He took me across the Nile where the Chinese are building a MASSIVE dam to make electricity for the NORTH Sudan and the Chinese oil fields. Remember I am north of the 1-1-56 line and I am in a Contested Area - after the election this could become South or North Sudan - see what I am getting at... this Hydroelectric dam is a HOT area.

So we crossed into a true African village and David took me to a local UN QIP (quick incentive project) (LOL nothing in the UN is quick) This centre for woman and children has been being built now for 3 years and is getting close to be finished.

As we drove through the village David opened his window and waved and says hi to everyone... When we stopped at the centre (small brick structure) we were quickly approached by about 5 children, then 5 more and eventually I counted about 14. They were all smiling. They are afraid to approach us and sta about 10 feet back. David becomes a police officer and a dad and kneels down and extends his hand and speaks a little Arabic and then English - essentially teaching the children his name.

One brave 5 y/o finally comes forward to shake his hand. It was awesome...all the kids smiled and they all tried some English. One girl (prob 9-10) spoke up and said "Hello, How are you?" we don't think she really knew what it meant but she sounded great!

I then knelt down beside a 5 y/o that looked like he wanted to say hi. I spoke in Arabic and he smiled and came forward..He took my hand.

The mothers came out and watched and were smiling and waving. David was reminding me that some of the kids probably have never seen a white person before.

If this is part of my job I will love being in Africa!

Tomorrow at 1100am I fly to my team site. In the 24 hours that I have been at this UN camp I have met and shook hands with so many nice people from around the world. Most actually remember your name. That is my new goal is to remember names quickly.

I actually practiced it in class last week and I was working with a group of 12 people for about 14 min and I only got introduced once as we went around the circle of us. When we had to do our group presentation to the class 15 min later I was able to call all of my team by their name, what job they were doing and where they were from. They all really appreciated that.

Im off to bed.